Upward Farms shut down after planning a 250,000 sq ft Pennsylvania vertical farm

Brooklyn-based vertical farming company

Vertical farming could drive unit economics down far enough to make sense on price, with a large Pennsylvania farm as the next step

Upward Farms was a Brooklyn-based vertical farming firm run by founders Jason Green, Ben Silverman and Matt La Rosa. In January 2022 TechCrunch covered what looked like an important next step: plans for a 250,000-square-foot farm in northeastern Pennsylvania, due to open in early 2023.

By April 2023 the founders wrote an open letter saying vertical farming was almost infinitely complex and that as they tackled challenges, new ones emerged. TechCrunch said that after three years of economic and other challenges, it was harder to convince potential backers to stick out a long runway.

Upward Farms closed after about a decade. A small part of the team would continue working on microbiome technology, with more to be shared in the coming months.

Vertical farming proved almost infinitely complex, with new problems emerging as old ones were solved

Unit economics had not reached a point where the technology made sense on price

Three years of economic and other challenges made backers harder to hold on a long runway

The planned 250,000-sq-ft Pennsylvania farm raised the scale of what had to work

Being early in vertical farming meant being among the first to leave: unit economics had to fall before the money ran out, and a bigger farm did not change the complexity.

As of 2023-04-28 Upward Farms had closed its doors after about a decade, with a small team continuing on microbiome work. TechCrunch named Bowery and AeroFarms as remaining big names in vertical farming.