Dec 5, 2018
France-based indoor farming startup Agricool has just announced the successful completion of a USD $28 Million funding round.
This news comes only a few months after Agritecture first reported that Agricool is successfully growing aeroponic strawberries in one of their Cooltainer farms outside of Dubai.
The startup had already raised $13 Million in their last funding round, bringing their total amount raised to date to $41 Million. Agricool says this funding will help them to pursue their ambition of making excellent, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables accessible to everyone across the globe.
With this new round of funding completed, Agricool plans to launch a hundred of their vertical farming containers by 2021 in Paris, Dubai and elsewhere, and plans to hire over 200 new employees to make this expansion possible.
An Agricool “Cooltainer” on display in Paris. The company installs wood-siding onto its container farms so that they better integrate with their surrounding environment.
For those familiar with the indoor farming industry, Agricool might already be a familiar name. Founded about 3 years ago by Co-Founder & CEO Guillaume Fourdinier, the France-based startup is best known for their ‘Cooltainer’ farms that grow strawberries in vertically oriented aeroponic systems.
Agricool currently has 5 Cooltainers in operation throughout Paris, and recently began their global expansion with a Cooltainer farm located in The Sustainable City, just miles outside of Dubai.
Agricool strawberries harvested in the UAE’s first Cooltainer farm.
For its latest funding round, Agricool has raised funds from new investors including Bpifrance Large Venture Fund, Danone Manifesto Ventures, Antoine Arnault via Marbeuf Capital, Solomon Hykes, and a dozen other business angels passionate about Agricool’s mission.
Existing investors, which include daphni, XAnge, Henri Seydoux and Xavier Niel via Kima Ventures, have also participated in this new funding round.
Agricool claims that their Cooltainer strawberries contain on average 20% more sugar and 30% more vitamin C than regular supermarket strawberries, due in large part to the fact that they’re harvested when perfectly ripe and transported only a short distance from harvest to the store.
According to CEO Guillaume Fourdinier, the company is passionate about helping cities develop more sustainably with higher levels of fresh food access, a goal which many cities are actively pursuing. “We are very excited about the idea of supporting urban farming in urban development, and it will soon no longer be a luxury to eat exceptional fruits and vegetables in cities,” said Guillaume.