Total raised averaged per day over approximately 9.4 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology
Funding: TechCrunch/Axios/PitchBook
Current status
Ceased operations (late 2024)
The rise & fall
6 moments · 2015–2024
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2015
🌱
2015
Founded by Irving Fain
The pitch: "modern farming" — pesticide-free greens grown in indoor vertical farms next door to the cities that eat them.
TechCrunch
2018
🦄
2018
Joins the unicorn club
Investors bet warehouse farms can beat the field on freshness and logistics.
TechCrunch
May 2021
📈
May 2021
The peak: Fidelity leads at $2.3B$2.3B
A Fidelity-led round crowns Bowery as vertical farming's best-funded startup, on its way to ~$700M raised in total.
Axios
2022–24
2022–24
The economics wilt
Energy costs, capital intensity, a crop pathogen and a failed acquisition overwhelm the unit economics of indoor lettuce.
TechCrunch
2023–24
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2023–24
Employees counted repeated layoff rounds from 2023 on, and Glassdoor reviews described a lettuce business run like a tech startup — cash burned with no path to profit — plus a widening divide between the New York office and the hourly "modern farmers" working 12-hour cold-room shifts. By 2024, insiders were openly predicting the shutdown.
Nov 2024
🪦
Nov 2024
Shuts down — joins the Unitard Club 💔
A wind-down ends operations late in 2024; Fidelity writes its stake down by more than 99%.
TechCrunch
$2.28Bof peak value erased · 9 years
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Bowery Farming ran indoor vertical farms it pitched as the future of local produce, reaching a $2.3B valuation in a 2021 round led by Fidelity. Energy costs, capital intensity, a crop pathogen and a failed acquisition overwhelmed the unit economics; it ceased operations in late 2024, with Fidelity writing down its stake by more than 99%.
