Key Players, Investors, and Real-World Vertical Farming Projects
The world’s population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, and food demand will rise sharply. At the same time, traditional farming faces serious challenges: shrinking farmland, climate change, and water shortages. This is where vertical farming is stepping in as a futuristic solution.
Vertical farming is a way of growing crops indoors in stacked layers using technologies such as hydroponics and aeroponics. Instead of spreading across large fields, crops are cultivated in climate-controlled environments where light, temperature, and nutrients are carefully managed.
Vertical Farming Leading Innovators and Founders
Behind every breakthrough in vertical farming are passionate entrepreneurs and scientists who believe in a better food system. Over the past decade, a handful of names have stood out as pioneers, creating companies that are now leaders in the industry.
One of the most well-known is Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk. He co-founded Square Roots, a company that builds modular vertical farms inside shipping containers. These container farms can be placed in cities, parking lots, or campuses, allowing fresh food to be grown directly where people live.
Square Roots now operates several container farms across the Midwest of the United States and has partnerships with food distributors to supply local produce. Kimbal Musk’s mission is to make local, sustainable food accessible to everyone.
Another big name is David Rosenberg, who co-founded AeroFarms in 2004. AeroFarms became famous for its aeroponic system, where plants grow without soil and their roots are misted with nutrient-rich water. The company built one of the largest indoor farms in Newark, New Jersey, with more than 70,000 square feet of growing space.
AeroFarms focused heavily on research and technology, proving that vertical farms can deliver fresh, pesticide-free produce at scale. Although the company faced financial struggles in 2023, it continues to operate farms in the United States and abroad, while also leading research into more efficient crop systems.
Irving Fain is another major figure. He founded Bowery Farming in 2015, introducing high levels of automation and artificial intelligence into indoor agriculture. Bowery developed its own farm operating system, BoweryOS, which controls lighting, climate, and irrigation with precision.
This technology allows the company to produce consistent, high-quality greens in urban warehouses. At its peak, Bowery sold produce to over 800 grocery stores across the East Coast of the United States.
Nate Storey, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Plenty, has also made a big impact. Plenty uses automated vertical towers and AI to maximize crop yields. The company’s 95,000-square-foot farm in Compton, California, produces leafy greens for retail partners, including Walmart.
Plenty is also building a new farm campus in Virginia that will be the largest of its kind in the world, and it will be the first vertical farm to grow strawberries at scale through a partnership with Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry supplier.
These leaders—Kimbal Musk, David Rosenberg, Irving Fain, and Nate Storey—represent the human vision and innovation driving the global vertical farming movement.
Vertical Farming Major Corporate and Institutional Investors
The rapid rise of vertical farming would not be possible without strong financial backing. Building high-tech farms requires large amounts of capital, and this funding has been provided by a mix of venture capital firms, multinational corporations, and even governments.
Retailers are playing a particularly important role. In 2022, Walmart invested in Plenty as part of a 400 million dollar funding round, which was one of the largest ever in the sector. Walmart also signed a supply agreement with Plenty to bring vertically grown leafy greens to its California stores. This move reflects how large retailers see vertical farming as a way to secure a resilient and sustainable food supply chain.
Airlines have also stepped in. Emirates Group, through its catering division, partnered with Crop One Holdings to build Bustanica, the world’s largest vertical farm in Dubai. This investment not only supplies fresh produce to the Middle Eastern market but also provides high-quality leafy greens for Emirates Airline meals, reducing reliance on imports.
Technology companies are showing interest too. Amazon, through its Climate Pledge Fund, has supported agtech startups involved in vertical farming. Having giants like Amazon in the space shows how vertical farming aligns with broader sustainability and climate goals.
Venture capital and investment funds have been crucial. SoftBank Vision Fund was one of the earliest and biggest backers of Plenty, leading its 200 million dollar Series B round and later supporting its 400 million dollar Series E. Temasek Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, has invested in multiple vertical farming companies, including AeroFarms and Bowery.
In collaboration with Bayer’s investment arm, Temasek also launched Unfold, a startup developing crop varieties tailored for vertical farming environments.
Other institutional investors include Grosvenor Food & AgTech, which has supported Bowery, and INGKA Investments, the venture capital arm of IKEA, which participated in funding for AeroFarms.
Governments have also played their part: the United States Department of Agriculture has funded controlled-environment agriculture research,
Singapore’s “30 by 30” initiative aims to produce 30% of the nation’s food locally by 2030, encouraging many vertical farm projects.
Together, these investors are shaping vertical farming into a serious industry rather than a niche experiment.
Notable Vertical Farming Projects
The best way to understand the impact of vertical farming is to look at real-world projects currently producing food on a large scale. Some of these projects are enormous industrial farms, while others are modular networks supplying local communities.
Bustanica (Dubai)
Bustanica, located near Dubai’s airport, is the largest vertical farm in the world. Covering 330,000 square feet across three stories, it has the capacity to grow more than 6,000 pounds of leafy greens every single day. That adds up to over one million kilograms of fresh produce every year.
Built by Crop One and Emirates Flight Catering, Bustanica supplies produce to the local market as well as directly to Emirates flights. The farm uses advanced hydroponic systems that reduce water usage by 95% compared to traditional farming, which is crucial in a desert country like the UAE.
AeroFarms (Newark, USA)
AeroFarms’ flagship site in Newark, New Jersey, became a symbol of vertical farming innovation. With 70,000 square feet of stacked growing racks, it was among the largest indoor vertical farms in the United States. AeroFarms’ aeroponic technology provided a model for sustainable, pesticide-free greens that reached supermarkets like Whole Foods, Costco, and Walmart.
The company also expanded globally with projects in Virginia and Abu Dhabi. While AeroFarms faced financial troubles in 2023, it emerged from restructuring with continued operations, showing both the promise and challenges of the model.
Plenty (Compton and Virginia, USA)
Plenty operates a 95,000-square-foot farm in Compton, California, supplying leafy greens to Walmart and other retailers. Its system of vertical towers and AI-driven control enables high productivity in a relatively small footprint.
Looking ahead, Plenty is building a farm campus in Richmond, Virginia, which will be the largest vertical farm facility in the world. In partnership with Driscoll’s, Plenty will also grow strawberries at commercial scale—something no vertical farm has done before.
Bowery Farming (East Coast, USA)
Bowery operates multiple farms across the eastern United States, including facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Its BoweryOS system integrates robotics, machine learning, and computer vision to grow a variety of greens. At its peak, Bowery’s produce was sold in over 800 stores, including Whole Foods and Walmart. Despite recent financial challenges, Bowery remains one of the most recognized names in vertical farming.
Square Roots (USA)
Square Roots focuses on smaller, modular farms housed in shipping containers. Its farms are designed to be deployed close to consumers, making fresh greens available with minimal transportation. The company has farms in cities such as Grand Rapids, Michigan, and operates five sites across the United States.
Square Roots emphasizes education and community partnerships, helping train young farmers and promoting food resilience in urban areas.
Other Global Examples
Beyond these major projects, vertical farming is spreading worldwide. Infarm, based in Berlin, has installed modular growing units inside grocery stores across Europe, letting customers buy produce grown just meters away. In Singapore, Sky Greens developed rotating vertical racks to maximize sunlight use.
In Denmark, Nordic Harvest runs one of Europe’s largest vertical farms powered entirely by wind energy. These projects highlight how vertical farming is being adapted to different climates, scales, and business models.
Advantages of Vertical Farming Projects
The advantages are impressive. A modern vertical farm can produce 150 to 350 times more food per acre than a traditional field and use up to 95% less water. Crops are protected from pests and unpredictable weather, and they can be grown near cities to reduce long transportation times.
The industry is expanding quickly: the global vertical farming market, valued at around 6.9 billion dollars in 2024, is projected to grow to more than 50 billion dollars by 2032. These numbers show why governments, corporations, and billionaire investors are betting big on this new farming revolution.
Outlook and Challenges
While vertical farming offers incredible promise, the road ahead is not without obstacles. The most significant challenge is cost. Building and running a vertical farm requires expensive infrastructure, and energy bills for powering LED lights and climate systems are very high. This is why many vertical farming startups, despite strong investor support, have struggled to achieve profitability.
In recent years, several companies have downsized, delayed projects, or even filed for bankruptcy. For example, AeroFarms and Bowery both faced financial stress, and other ventures such as Fifth Season in Pittsburgh closed down. These difficulties show that scaling vertical farming is more complex than initially expected.
However, the long-term outlook remains positive. Technological progress is reducing costs, with new generations of LED lights becoming more energy-efficient and AI improving yield predictions. Partnerships with large retailers like Walmart and airlines like Emirates provide stable demand for produce.
Additionally, the rise of renewable energy could lower the environmental footprint and operational costs of vertical farms. Companies like Plenty are already demonstrating that large-scale, AI-driven farms can meet commercial demand for both greens and berries.
Another promising area is crop diversification. While most vertical farms today grow leafy greens, herbs, and microgreens, research is expanding into tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and even staple crops in the long term. If successful, this will make vertical farming more competitive with traditional agriculture.
Conclusion
Vertical farming is no longer just a futuristic idea—it is becoming a real part of the global food system. Visionary founders like Kimbal Musk, David Rosenberg, Irving Fain, and Nate Storey have shown that food can be grown in innovative ways, even in cities and deserts. Backed by powerful investors such as Walmart, Emirates, SoftBank, and Temasek, these ideas have transformed into large-scale projects like Bustanica in Dubai.
Plenty’s farms in the United States, and Infarm’s in-store networks across Europe.The story of vertical farming is still being written, but one thing is clear: the collaboration between innovators, investors, and real-world projects is laying the foundation for a new era in agriculture.
