Vertical farmer Dream Harvest—which raised $50 million in late 2021 to fund the expansion of its facility in Houston, Texas—is auctioning off a large tranche of equipment that it bought in 2022, but has not yet deployed.
According to Silicon Valley Disposition, which is handling the auction on January 14-16, the sale features equipment “purchased new in 2022 for $8 million, never put into production” including packaging equipment, harvesting equipment, LED lighting, water equipment cells, an irrigation system, containers and stands, trays, aluminum, and a communication system.
CEO Zain Shauk—who founded Dream Harvest with Harmeet Singh in 2015— did not provide an update on the company’s performance or explain why it is selling off kit that it bought two years ago to expand the Houston facility. He told AgFunderNews: “We are selling some of our unused assets in Houston. We have what we need in our other facilities.”
The news follows another year of correction for the vertical farming industry that began in earnest in 2022. Smallhold and Bowery were a couple of the most notable closures in 2024, while Plenty has appointed a new interim CEO and is reportedly in the midst of a recapitalization that could see its valuation plummet.
“One of the biggest challenges with vertical farming has been the lack of clarity in stating the problem being solved and for whom,” Rishi Pethe of agrifood consulting firm Metal Dog Labs wrote this week. Like others, he emphasized the need to “strike a balance between leveraging technology and adhering to agricultural best practices to ensure successful operations.”
That said, some companies have still attracted funding over the past year, most notably upmarket berry grower Oishii, which recently closed a $150 million series B round.
According to preliminary data from AgFunder, parent company to AgFunderNews, the top five rounds in vertical farming in 2024 were raised by Oishii ($150 million), Vertical Harvest ($59.5 million project financing), GrowUp ($49.3 million from Generate Capital), IGS ($28.6 million), and Hippo Harvest ($21 million led by Standard Investments).
Further reading:
10 years in indoor ag: After a decade of tough lessons, indoor ag nears ‘the plateau of enlightenment’
Source link
Author Elaine Watson
