iFarm (iFarm corp.) is an international company that develops software and hardware for

vertical farming Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth, and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and ae ...

and hydroponics. Its technologies are used for automatedd pesticide-free growing of salads, strawberries, and microgreens. It's headquartered in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

with an office in the US.

History

It was founded in 2017 by Alex Lyskovsky, the founder of video game publisher

Alawar Alawar Entertainment is an international developer, distributor, and publisher of video games for PC, mobile platforms, games consoles and other devices based in Lewes, Delaware. Its main areas of activity are mid-core games for experienced pla ...

, and his friends. In 2018, the company expanded its facilities with a large-scale salad farm and a laboratory for strawberry production. In 2019, iFarm raised $1 million in a round led by Gagarin Capital. The same year, the company moved its headquarters to Helsinki, Finland. It opened 8 laboratories and launched a small point-of-sale herb cultivation module production. In 2020, the company opened an office in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In July 2020, company became a member of the international Association for Vertical Farming. In August 2020, the company announced the raise of $4 million in seed funding from a group of investors. In the same year, iFarm partnered with YASAI AG and Logiqs B.V. to launch Zurich's first vertical farm. Vertical plant inside

In 2021, a partnership with the AlSadarah Group was announced to use iFarm technology in a pilot vertical farm in Al Khor, Qatar. In January 2022, iFarm and French scientific cosmetics company Capsum launched a sustainable vertical farming research project to create innovative cosmetics in France. IFarm elevator in centre

As of 2022, the company helped clients create farms based on iFarm technology in 14 countries, including Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Andorra, Finland, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Technology

iFarm technology relies on automation, sensors and a proprietary farm management software, Growtune, to monitor and automate crop care, applying computer vision and machine learning and drawing on data on "thousands" of plants collected from a distributed network of farms, per iFarm. In 2022, firm released fully automated solution, that reduces the overall energy bill compared to traditional type of vertical farms due to a system that automatically "transplants" (refits) the grow space for the plants.

References

{{Reflist Software companies of Finland 2017 establishments in Finland Companies based in Helsinki