Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

__she__wolf t1_iudwyh8 wrote

Paywall:

Fifth Season, a Pittsburgh-based indoor vertical farming startup that used advanced robotics to grow a variety of leafy greens for distribution in salad kits sold at hundreds of grocery stores, has shut down. According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the revenue-producing startup officially closed its doors on Friday. It employed about 100 workers, most of whom reported to its headquarters in The Highline building on the South Side while others worked out of its 60,000-square-foot indoor farming facility in Braddock. A representative from the company declined to speak on the record about the startup's closing at this time. Details on what led to its closure remain unknown, though it comes amid a local and national backdrop of difficult times for capital-heavy tech startups seeking additional investments amid tightening economic conditions. The closure of Fifth Season is the latest blow to Pittsburgh's startup community as it comes just days after Strip District-based autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI announced it, too, had closed. Argo's local employment reached about 800 workers across the region and nearly 2,000 people worldwide. A Carnegie Mellon University spinout founded in 2016 by CEO Austin Webb, Chief Operating Officer Brac Webb and Chief Technology Officer Austin Lawrence, Fifth Season went on to raise $75 million in outside investments. Like Argo, Fifth Season's shuttering follows a period of significant milestones for the company. Just weeks ago, the company announced a new salad product and a complete redesign of its packaging. In September, it offered a media tour of its Braddock farm to celebrate the full activation of its on-site microgrid that is capable of supplying 1,360 kilowatts of electricity to the site during peak usage. That followed the August announcement that Fifth Season began offering its salad kits at local Whole Foods locations, the latest addition to the more than 750 grocery stores where consumers could find its products.

16