If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Take Plantagon, the Swedish company that raised SEK4.5 million (around $435,000) and in 2012 broke ground on its first vertical farm: a greenhouse "plant-scraper" that it hoped could integrate food production into urban settings and maximize vertical space for growing food in cities.
Less than seven years later, Plantagon went bankrupt before it was even able to complete its flagship farm in Linköping, Sweden. It wasn't the first vertical farming company to seize on the imagination of investors, and it certainly won't be the last. Globally, more than $1.5 billion has been poured into the vertical farming industry by venture capitalists, and billions more have come in government funding, including in the Middle East.
US startup Plenty signed a $680 million deal with Mawarid in 2024 to set up five indoor farms, including one in Abu Dhabi, which is slated to produce more than 4.6 million pounds of strawberries by 2026. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has also teamed up with vertical farming company Aerofarms with the aim of bringing six vertical farms to Riyadh.
Read more at AGBI.