After raising billions in funding, vertical farming companies have struggled. Plenty, a Silicon Valley-based startup backed by investors including Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, filed for bankruptcy in March. Bowery, which was once valued at $2.3 billion, shut down last fall. Another startup, Fifth Season, shuttered its automated indoor farm in 2022. AeroFarms, a pioneer in the space, declared bankruptcy in 2023.
The basic business model—growing crops like leafy greens indoors on tall vertical towers—hasn't proven that it can work. But AeroFarms, which raised an undisclosed amount of money after its bankruptcy and found a new CEO, has managed to turn itself around. The company has now been profitable for the last two quarters as it sells microgreens at retailers like Whole Foods and Costco.
"Despite the current skepticism, I think we've now demonstrated that vertical farming can be sustainable and profitable and deliver product at scale," says Molly Montgomery, who became CEO of AeroFarms in September 2023.
Before joining the company, Montgomery studied it at the request of investors who wanted to know if it could be a viable business. "I was extremely skeptical about vertical farms because I had never seen a profitable business model yet," says Montgomery. "When they asked me, I was like, 'I'm not sure that a vertical farm can be profitable.'" Montgomery, who also serves as board director for NatureSweet, a leader in greenhouse-grown tomatoes, previously led Landec Corp., a company that contracted with outdoor growers throughout the U.S. and Mexico to make salad kits and other packaged vegetable products.
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