<p>Urban agriculture company BrightFarms is announcing that it has raised $4.9 million in Series B funding from a group of investors led by NGEN Partners, Emil Capital Partners, BrightFarms founder Ted Caplow, and several other prominent investors. According to Reuters, this funding will allow BrightFarms to continue building commercial-scale greenhouses to meet an increasing demand from supermarkets for locally-grown produce.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“We are particularly excited to be supporting BrightFarms, as it sits at the leading edge of the demand for local food production, utilizing sustainable practices and a disruptive distribution model. BrightFarms is well-positioned to rapidly scale its model and now has the customer support and team to do so,” said NGEN Managing Director Peter Grubstein.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">In an effort to build the first national brand of locally-grown produce, the company is building a distributed network of local greenhouse farms, and uses long-term fixed-price contracts with supermarkets. By operating local greenhouse farms in urban areas, the company eliminates time, distance, and costs from the food supply chain.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">“I am pleased at this opportunity to increase my investment in BrightFarms,” stated Ted Caplow, founder and Chairman of BrightFarms. “It is more important than ever to improve the environmental footprint of the produce supply chain, and BrightFarms is leading that effort on a commercial scale, creating the first national brand for local produce while saving land and water.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Will urban agriculture ultimately increase the availability of locally-sourced produce?<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.brightfarms.com" target="_new"> BrightFarms </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.pehub.com/2014/01/brightfarms-raises-4-9-mln-in-series-b-funding/" target="_new"> Reuters </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
