80 Acres Farms

Market position

One of the largest and longest-running players in the US indoor agriculture industry; the August 2025 Soli Organic merger was described by the companies as creating one of the world's largest indoor farming networks.

Pesticide-free, locally grown produce with extended shelf life, grown, harvested and packed under one roof and delivered to retailers within 48 hours, with substantially lower water and land use than field agriculture and partnerships with Siemens and Signify to optimize growing and packaging.

Technology

Closed-loop indoor farms operating without soil or sunlight, using energy-efficient LED lighting tuned to each plant variety, hydroponic nutrient delivery, advanced climate control, water and nutrient recycling, and robotics and AI for planting through harvest. The company reported using up to 95% less water than traditional farms and 100% renewable energy, and stated its methods produce up to 300 times more food per square foot than traditional farming. The farm technology platform is branded Infinite Acres.

Go-to-market

Products were distributed through grocery retailers and foodservice distributors, including Kroger, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, Dorothy Lane Market, Jungle Jim's, Sysco, US Foods, and at national scale Albertsons, H-E-B, Meijer and Walmart, reaching more than 18,000 US retail locations.

Grocery retail chains, independent grocers and foodservice distributors, and through them retail consumers buying packaged fresh salads, herbs and microgreens.

Geography

United States operations centered on Hamilton, Ohio, with facilities in Florence and Boone County, Kentucky; Arkansas; Georgia; Texas; Colorado; South Carolina (Anderson); Washington (Marysville); and Harrisonburg, Virginia (formerly Soli Organic). It also acquired Israeli biotechnology company Plantae Biosciences.

History

Founded in Cincinnati in 2015 by Mike Zelkind and Tisha Livingston, the company relocated its headquarters to Hamilton, Ohio in 2019, the same year Virgo Investment Group led its first major funding round. Barclays joined as a strategic investor in 2020 alongside Virgo, Orange Wings Capital and QuietStar Capital. In 2021 it raised a $160M Series B, built a $30M processing facility in Hamilton, opened an R&D facility in Arkansas and expanded its Kroger partnership to 316 stores. A $95 million, 200,000-square-foot farm opened in Boone County, Kentucky in 2023, its eighth farm being in Florence, Kentucky. In February 2025 it raised $115M and acquired assets and IP of bankrupt Kalera plus Israeli biotech Plantae Biosciences; it laid off roughly two dozen workers in March 2025, merged with Soli Organic in August 2025, and raised a further $28.4M in October 2025. Operations were wound down in August 2026.

Risks & controversies

A California produce supplier filed a federal PACA lawsuit on July 1, 2026 against 80 Acres Farms, Soli Organic and named executives over unpaid invoices. The Harrisonburg, Virginia facility closed quietly on July 21, 2026 with roughly 80 job losses, two weeks before the public shutdown announcement, and employees at most locations were notified only in the week operations ended, with some learning from news coverage. Capital continued to arrive until roughly nine months before the shutdown, and the business did not close the gap between revenue and total cost.