By Jonny Tiernan
There has been a growing trend of inner city farms emerging in recent years. Berlin’s Infarm is an example of a company that is helping cities to become more self-sufficient in their food production, and now Square Roots is establishing itself as a leading light in urban agriculture. The Brooklyn-based startup has just raised $5.4 million in seed funding that will be used to empower food entrepreneurs and increase urban farming across the US.
An increasing percentage of the world’s population are living in cities, and this number is set to keep growing. Square Roots wants to help develop ways for inner city populations to have access to locally produced, healthy food, as opposed to the food that is currently produced on an industrial scale.
The company was founded by Kimbal Musk (yes, he is related to Elon Musk actually, they’re brothers) and Tobias Pegg with the purpose of spurring a food revolution. They want to help entrepreneurs to learn how to grow and sell their own food crops.
The startup does this by creating indoor hydroponic farms that grow food all year round. Groups of entrepreneurs are taken on for a 12-month program, where they learn how to produce and distribute their crop to the city. It opened the first of these farms in Brooklyn earlier this year, with 10 entrepreneurs taking part, growing and harvesting fresh greens that are delivered to customers in more than 80 office locations in NYC. It’s a way of connecting customers directly to farmers, and strengthening the connection between the source and the consumer.
Collaborative Fund is the leading funder in the round, supplying a $2 million injection. The funding will spur the next stage in Square Roots’ development, with the startup now looking for a second US city to open a new farm in. Collaborative Fund has previously invested in giants such as Kickstarter and Sweetgreen, so with that kind of backing we might be seeing Square Roots farms cropping up in a lot more cities in the near future.
I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it! We just don't like paywalls, and so we've decided to ditch ours. Unfortunately, the media business is still a tough, cut-throat business with tiny margins. It's a never-ending Olympic challenge to stay above water or even perhaps — gasp — grow. So ...
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
