Vertical farmer GoodLeaf Farms unveiled a $52-million equity financing that will be used to double the production capacity of its sites in Alberta and Quebec, and establish a research centre in Ontario.

The Guelph-headquartered company owns three farms in Guelph, Calgary and Montreal. The farms in Calgary and Montreal are each approximately 100,000 square feet, and can produce approximately two million pounds of leafy greens per year.

Its 50,000-square-foot Guelph farm, commissioned in 2020, was its first commercial-scale property. There, GoodLeaf tests its horticulture program and conducts market research.

GoodLeaf’s produce is grown in indoor farms that use 97 per cent less water, 95 per cent less land, and require 10 times fewer "food miles" compared to traditional open-field farming in California, the company says on its website.

In Guelph, GoodLeaf is launching its Agricultural Centre of Excellence. It will conduct research and development on more sustainable and efficient growing practices for its farms.

GoodLeaf started 2025 with “incredible momentum” because demand for its produce nearly doubled by April, Andy O'Brien, CEO of the company, said in the financing announcement.

With the new funding, GoodLeaf will give “Canadians even greater access to premium, locally grown baby greens and nutrient dense microgreens,” he added.

Sustainable Biz Canada has reached out to GoodLeaf for comment. We will update this article with any additional information as it becomes available.

Momentum for indoor-farmed produce in Canada

GoodLeaf’s produce is sold in hundreds of Canadian grocery stores including Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Real Canadian Superstore, Foodland, Longo’s, Valu-Mart, and Whole Foods, plus independent grocers and restaurants.

The latest funding includes investments from new and existing shareholders, such as Farm Credit Canada (FCC), Power Sustainable Lios and McCain Foods. FCC and Power Sustainable Lios participated in a $78-million syndicated debt financing for GoodLeaf in 2023.

"GoodLeaf's innovative approach is exactly what Canada needs to drive productivity, strengthen our food economy and ensure a reliable supply of fresh produce for families nationwide,” Adam Smalley, managing director of FCC Capital, said in the announcement.

Other Canadian companies aiming to farm sustainably include fellow vertical farmer Vision Greens and indoor producers Lufa Farms and Haven Greens. As Canada imports over 90 per cent of its leafy greens from the U.S., such companies have looked to bring the production closer to home and reduce the pollution from transportation.

Vision Greens grows three kinds of lettuce from its facility in Welland, Ont. With the injection of an $18-million investment in 2024, the company set a target to grow an additional one million pounds of lettuce per year.

Vision Greens taps into renewable energy to power its operations, uses far less land than traditional farming, and recycles 98 per cent of its water, its CEO Lenny Louis told Sustainable Biz Canada in a 2024 interview.

“So when you talk about land use, water use and renewable energy use, it’s truly an energy-efficient and resource-efficient kind of operation,” he said.

For Haven Greens, the trade war between Canada and the U.S. has been a benefit for its business. More Canadians have been searching for domestically grown produce, Jay Willmot, founder and CEO of Haven Greens, told Sustainable Biz Canada in an interview earlier this year.

“We wanted to build infrastructure that could attempt to reduce that reliance” on imported greens, he said, “and also bring more sustainability into our food system by reducing food kilometres, utilizing more renewable energy, trying to introduce circularity and recycling and upcycling into everything that we did.”