Babylon Micro-Farms recently announced a new product called STEM Garden, an indoor farming unit for education. (Provided by: Babylon Microfarms)
A local indoor farming startup is setting its sights on a new customer base: K-12 schools.
Babylon Micro-Farms recently introduced the STEM Garden, a hydroponic device used to grow vegetables indoors and intended for classroom instruction.
The STEM garden is a smaller version of the company’s Galleri microfarm unit, which was rolled out in May 2022. Babylon sells or leases these hydroponic systems to companies and uses its own in-house software to remotely manage its customers’ farms.
Both units are manufactured at our Babylon headquarters in Scotts Addition.
Cheaper and more compact, STEM Garden is aimed at schools looking to expand their science curriculum through hands-on learning experiences. The idea is that schools would purchase the units and use them for classroom instruction by allowing students to sow, grow and harvest plants. The STEM garden can grow 90 plants and harvest 2 pounds of produce each week.
The gallery is intended to grow food for consumption, and the unit will target customers such as universities, corporate cafeterias, and senior living facilities that require local sourcing of vegetables for their menus. Babylon Gallery’s customers include IKEA, American Airlines, Aramark, Sodexo, Arizona State University and Dartmouth College, according to the company’s website.
The gallery, which Babylon operates remotely for customers using subscription-based BabylonIQ software, can hold 280 plants, including leafy vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers.
“Galleri is a finely tuned automated device that we run remotely, but it doesn’t actually do anything like plant seeds or introduce nutrients,” said Babylon CEO Alexander Olesen. means they are not involved.” “We designed the[STEM unit]experience to really take advantage of every step from seed to harvest.”
Alexander Olesen
The STEM Garden costs $6,500 each, while the Galleri costs $15,000. The gallery measures approximately 67 inches wide, approximately 30 inches deep, and approximately 80 inches high, while the STEM garden measures approximately 40 inches wide, approximately 29 inches deep, and approximately 62 inches high.
Babylon expects to begin shipping STEM Garden units in June. The company unveiled the new product to the public earlier this year and began accepting orders in February.
The company did not say how many orders it had received for STEM farms as of Wednesday.
The STEM unit was born out of interest from educators, who told Babylon they wanted a low-cost unit for science education, Olesen said.
Olesen said the unit is pitched as relevant to teaching biology, engineering, nutrition and other topics. He said Babylon has sold “hundreds” of Galleri units, some of which are used in educational settings, but price is a hurdle for widespread use in the education community. .
Olesen said that while the STEM garden is aimed at school children, Babylon is using the unit as a low-end product for its flagship indoor farm unit for other uses and industries, including units tailored and priced to be considered household items. He said he believes it is a big step towards a price version.
“As a company, our goal from the beginning has been to make hydroponics accessible to everyone, and lowering costs is the best way to bring about that change,” Olesen said. “We see a future where micro-farms exist in every household in this country. There is a very clear path forward for indoor farming applications to be sold alongside other household products in the sub-thousand dollar range. I think there is.”
Olesen and Graham Smith founded Babylon in Charlottesville in 2017. The company moved to its current headquarters at 3409 Carlton Street in 2021. The company had about 40 employees as of last month.
A Babylon spokesperson declined to comment on the total amount of funding the company has secured so far or whether Babylon is profitable. The company has raised at least $17.5 million from investors to date, according to SEC filings and previous BizSense reports.
