Freight Farms is now more green.
The Boston startup that builds automated farm systems in shipping containers raised $15 million in a Series B round led by New York City-based Ospraie Ag Science, which invests in agtech companies. Existing investor Spark Capital also participated in the round, which brings the company's total funding to more than $28 million.
Freight Farms runs a network of smart farms across 44 states and 25 countries. Each smart farm, called a "Greenery," is housed in a 320-sq.-ft. hydroponic shipping container. These vertical farming containers are all linked to the startup's data platform, Farmhand.
The startup's customers range from food distributors and grocery stores to educational institutions and corporate campuses. In the past, the company has worked with the Compas Group, Google and Federal Realty Investment Trust.
The 10-year-old startup claims its farms can grow more than 500 varieties of crops at a commercial scale by using 99.8 percent less water than traditional agriculture.
In January, the company partnered with food and facilities management company Sodexo to install its farms in universities and schools across the country. Its research partnerships include exploring self-sustaining crop production with NASA and integrating CRISPR tomato seed genetics into its vertical farms with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York.
"We're resetting the model for modular container farming," Brad McNamara CEO and co-founder told BostInno. "We signed a huge deal with Sodexo, it's a good reason to put money in the bank and grow the technology."
