Mar 1, 20193 min read

Going Commercial

When I was young, I always dreamed of something that could disrupt the business world as we know it. This time, could it be Bifarm’s precision cultivation technologies? While is yet to be found, we do see a trend of high-tech usage in the agriculture industry, and Bifarm is in the sweet spot.

Brief picture of the industry

The medical and recreational market are getting lots of attention for its stellar profit generating capabilities. People call it “the green rush”. By studying those successful cultivation businesses, you can find that three distinct characteristics standing out: Consistent, Compliant, Cost-smart.

Due to the regulations in federal level, big businesses and funds are reluctant to enter this industry. Most of the companies which operate here, are small businesses. That resulted in a vibrant business landscape, but also caused a unique phenomenon: the lack of recognizable brands. It is especially harder to create a brand in cultivation, because the quality of harvest needs to be maintained in different grow cycles, and across business locations. For medical use, there is even regulation governing the consistency of medicine supplies.

That leads to the topic of regulation. With the recent legalization movements, states are posing tremendous burdens on operators for compliance purpose. For example, seed-to-sales tracking requirement. That put a lot mom-and-pop shops out of business, because they couldn’t afford the time and energy to handle it. And there is little value in selling the business, because the potential buyer would inherit the risk of being audited.

How does Bifarm fit in the industry?

Bifarm offers solutions for operators to be consistent and compliant, and at the same time, reduce costs

Bifarm’s technologies fit this context perfectly and unexpectedly. It focuses on precision grow, with tools and functions to collect the grow data, to maintain environments, and manage nutrient delivery for proper growth. By book-keeping the grow data, it helps operators to be regulation complaint.

The grow plan execution allows re-construction of the optimal environments and therefore, achieve consistency.

Bifarm’s aeroponics technology uses smaller amounts of water comparing to the deep-water-culture. That makes it a perfect candidate for vertical grow. Going vertical saves space, reducing real state costs.

Computer-assisted automation cuts down the labor expenses, environment monitoring saves damages caused by human errors and negligence, shorter growth cycle reduces energy spending, and the premium yields made by aeroponics boosts the revenue. All of the above contribute to a better bottom line for businesses and gives them a crucial competitive advantage over peers.

Ok, enough boring business talk. Let’s talk about something exciting.

Bifarm in Action

In the past 8 months, we have been working with a partner on a vertical setup solution for commercial use. The new design was based on Bifarm BUD (intro video), one of our signature concept products. It is a modular system with backup features build-in, covering 4x8 square feet growing space. The new GrowOS operating software provides full automation with nutrient replenishment, draining and cleaning routines. It is compatible with GrowOS Business Server which includes batch management for grow activities, user/tasks management, and monitoring services.

The following is the short video clip of testing of Bifarm’s temperature-controlled high-pressure aeroponics technology in a commercial size chamber.

Bifarm AeroCOM prototyping

Here is a behind-the-scenes look from a location of our partner, who is a one-stop solution provider, offering services ranging from licensing, facility buildout, to operation management (grow, harvest, extract, and more).

Our approach for commercial solutions is customization. Each project is different from others in terms of requirements and constrains. And the commercial setup will take some time to build out.

Test drive of the Bifarm Precision Aeroponics

If you are interested in testing out Bifarm’s precision aeroponics technology, you can pre-order Bifarm’s AeroXPS with commercial add-on features like pH & EC, auto replenishment & draining. Each XPS is about 2x2 feet in size. Suggestion is to get 8 units of XPS for a testing grow experience. AeroXPS Production tooling starts in mid march, 2019 and will start shipping in June, on first-come-first-serve bases. Refundable deposit of $50 to reserve the spot and to help the “precision production planning”.