An agritech company with a big idea has relocated its headquarters to Birmingham after taking part in the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech accelerator.
ShipShape Urban Farms, previously located in Mobile, is focused on the development of the Container Garden, a 3.4-acre hydroponic farm inside an up-cycled shipping container.
Its headquarters is now located in the Denham Building at 1143 First Ave. S., Suite 115.
"Imagine a world with a farm in front of every school, serving as a classroom that also provides fresh nutritious food for our children. Imagine a world with no food deserts, because right now one in six Americans live in one," said ShipShape Urban Farm's founder and CSO Angela Speetjens at the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech accelerator demo day.
Dale Speetjens, founder and CEO at Shipshape Urban Farms, added that food waste and a system that relies on cheap oil to transport food will become increasingly problematic as the world's population increases, and those are problems Shipshape Urban Farms aims to solve by reducing food waste and allowing food to be grown closer to home via its space-saving Container Gardens.
The company's technology allows 5 acres of food to be grown in 500 square feet of space, and it also helps accelerate the growth of crops.
By end of 2023, Speetjens said, the company will have the ability to build and deploy 400 modular forms a year, equivalent to 2,000 acres of farmland.
Among multiple other partnerships developed during the company's time in the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech accelerator, it recently entered a partnership with Orbital Assembly to send its tech into space.
The news comes at the same time that another Techstars Alabama EnergyTech accelerator company, Idyllo, decided to launch in Birmingham. Idyllo is a home improvement marketplace company founded in Washington, D.C.
Idyllo founder and CEO Jessica Majno made the announcement at the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech accelerator on Dec. 6. Majno added that she already made three Birmingham hires during the accelerator program.
