Boston's Freight Farms has raised $3.7 million in funding to expand its "farm in a box" and take the next steps toward changing our notion of agriculture.
It's the first agriculture-related investment for Boston venture firm Spark Capital, best known for consumer-facing tech investments such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and Wayfair.
Since its launch in 2010, Freight Farms has developed a novel commercial farming system—a shipping container that grows vegetables using hydroponics and connects to the cloud for remote monitoring and control. The systems can be sited anywhere a normal shipping container could go, enabling commercial agriculture in places it was never before possible.
Freight Farms has sold about 20 units to date and expects strong growth in 2015, co-founder and CEO Brad McNamara said. Next year, "I think we are going to get a real clear picture on the impact that we can have on the mainstream food system," he said.
Customers so far include the Courtyard Marriott in Concord, N.H., and Tasty Burger, which most likely plans to use the Freight Farm with a new location to be announced next year.
Leading the investment for Spark Capital was firm co-founder Todd Dagres, who wrote, in a blog post planned for publication in connection with the funding announcement, that "For me, there’s nothing better than finding an early-stage company that is primed to be the leader in a meaningful category. Unless of course, that company is also driven by a noble cause."
Freight Farms has now raised $4.9 million in funding to date. Other investors have included Morningside Venture Investments Limited, LaunchCapital and Rothenberg Ventures.
