Urban Farm DB
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Building interiorInactiveSince 2004

AeroFarms

Newark, United States · Operator: AeroFarms, Inc.

Overview

A Newark, NJ pioneer of indoor vertical farming; after a failed 2021 SPAC listing it ran short of capital and filed Chapter 11 in 2023.

Citizen participation

Consumers only bought packaged produce at retail; no public participation in growing.

Operating model

Commercial B2B/B2C model mass-producing leafy greens and microgreens in indoor vertical racks for retail.

Impact

Heavy capex and high operating costs outran fundraising; only $3.6M unrestricted cash remained at filing. Industry and capital-market headwinds forced bankruptcy and drastic downsizing. Lesson: capital-intensive vertical farms can run out of cash before reaching profitability.

Crops

  • leafy greens
  • microgreens

Scale

Filed Chapter 11 in June 2023; the entity became 'AF Liquidation, Inc.' and downsized its Newark operations drastically

Sources(2)

Related cases

AeroFarms — Urban Farm DB