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Babylon MicroFarms Closes $3M Seed Round

Virginia-based agtech company Babylon Micro-Farms announced that it raised $3 million in a seed funding round with participation from existing its investor, the Center for Innovative Technology, as well as new participants, including Hull Street Capital, Venture South and the CAV Angels group.

The funds will be used to help the company continue to develop its growing technology as well as move into the national market. In conjunction with the funding round, the company also moved its headquarters to Richmond, VA where it says it intends to triple its workforce, exceeding its original staffing projections for 2022.

Babylon said that it expects to realize triple-digit revenue growth in 2021 due to its successful strategy of targeting foodservice establishments as clients for its indoor farming units. What was once a business specializing in table-top hydroponic stations, Babylon has expanded to focus on fully-controlled grow systems that can support a variety of leafy greens as well as flowers. The company’s hardware is licensed out to foodservice operations where Babylon continues to monitor the light, water and nutrient levels in the system, alerting the people on the ground caring for the plants when they are primed for picking so that crop harvesting occurs only when necessary.

This push for indoor-grown local produce is not unique to Babylon. Other companies like Farm.One and Grönska also offer complete systems for foodservice vendors. However, Babylon may not intend to compete long term for the best hardware, The Spoon reported. Instead, the company has the opportunity to focus on providing its expertise in software to grow its indoor farming platform as more businesses and individuals seek to grow their own fresh produce.

For the time being, the company said it will spend its efforts expanding the licensing of its farm units at a national scale. “2021 is on track to be a year of accelerating growth and major market penetration through national distribution as we continue to focus on deploying our indoor farming service,” said company CEO Alexander Olesen in a statement.