Alexander Olesen, CEO of Babylon Micro-Farms, and his business partner Graham Smith, CTO, started exploring hydroponics in 2016 while in school at the University of Virginia in terms of its hypothetical applications to grow crops in refugee camps.
“We realized that this was an incredibly efficient way of growing crops,” Olesen said.
Upon researching into how large commercial greenhouses use this technology, Olesen and Smith began looking into how it could be used on a smaller scale. While the technology never made it into refugee camps, they started looking into practical applications in their community and researching the minimum square foot of farming space needed to feed one person, feed a family or sustain a business.
When they realized those measurements could fit into a home or business, the idea of the small vertical farming modules utilizing unique hydroponics technology that Babylon Micro-Farms creates today was born.