Babylon Micro-Farms grows inventory with new, lower-cost indoor farming product

Scott’s Addition-based Babylon Micro-Farms sells indoor hydroponic farms. (Photos courtesy Babylon Micro-Farms)

A local indoor farming company is growing its inventory with the unveiling of a new product with a lower price tag. 

Scott’s Addition-headquartered Babylon Micro-Farms recently introduced its Galleri Lite Micro-Farm, a new iteration of its flagship Galleri Micro-Farm – an automated indoor vertical farm that the company introduced in late May 2022. 

The new Babylon Micro-Farms Galleri Lite.

Although it has the same dimensions, plant space and hardware as the original Galleri product, Galleri Lite has removed some technical complexity of the original and comes with a much lower price tag.

Differences include taking away the remote management features from the original Galleri Micro-Farm, which is used to grow food for consumption and is targeted at universities, corporate cafeterias and senior living facilities that want on-site greens options for their menus.

Where Babylon operates Galleri remotely for customers using its subscription-based BabylonIQ software, Galleri Lite will not be managed remotely by Babylon. The software will still be used to monitor the Galleri Lite micro-farms’ growth, but the consumer will be responsible for dosing nutrients of the micro-farm and other troubleshooting that falls to Babylon with the original Galleri. 

Babylon co-founder Alexander Olesen told BizSense that Babylon has been trying to bring more accessibility to its products since the rollout of the original Galleri. 

Alexander Olesen

“As we’ve gotten out into the market, we’ve been trying to lower the cost of our products and make them accessible to a broader market,” Olesen said. “That’s really what the Galleri Lite’s about.”

“It’s not the right system for everyone,” Olesen added. “But there are actually a lot of customers we have where they really just want the sticker price to be lower, they’re happy to do a little bit more work and happy to learn the growing process.” 

Galleri Lite is about $10,000 per unit, a significant price slash from the roughly $15,000-per-unit pricing of the original Galleri.

Both Galleri and Galleri Lite customers can choose from a standard or premium service package. At $300 per month, a premium service package gives users things like an account manager and auto-seed and supply shipments. A $150-per-month standard service package does not include an account manager and offers consumers a monthly web store credit to order consumables.

Both Galleri and Galleri Lite micro-farms are 67 inches wide, about 30 inches deep and about 80 inches tall. Both can hold plants from over 45 varieties like leafy greens, herbs, microgreens and flowers.

Babylon’s Galleri clients include American Airlines, Ikea, Dartmouth College, University of Virginia and other organizations, per the company’s website. The company has installed the micro-farms in 40 states and at least five countries, Olesen said. 

Babylon is currently taking orders for Galleri Lite and will be shipping later this month. 

Along with Galleri Lite, Babylon last year unveiled a smaller, $6,500 unit aimed at K-12 schools called the STEM Garden. Olesen told BizSense at the time he saw the STEM Garden as a first step toward lower cost versions of Galleri. 

Now entering its eighth year, Babylon Micro-Farms currently has about 40 employees. The company was founded in Charlottesville in 2017 by Olesen and Graham Smith and relocated to its current headquarters at 3409 Carlton St. in 2021. 

To date, the company has secured around $20 million in equity funding and somewhere between $2 million and $4 million in grant funding, Olesen said.

Note: This story has been updated to clarify pricing based on additional info provided by the company.