Updated 2:18 p.m. June 11: This story has been updated with comments from AeroFarms CEO Gustavo Burger.
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The indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms in Pittsylvania County has been acquired by an investment firm.
The buyer is an affiliate of Palm Ventures, a family investment office based in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Austin, Texas, according to a news release.
Thursday’s news release said the transaction closed in April. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Before the deal, AeroFarms had faced the prospect of a shutdown and accompanying mass layoffs for months.
Palm Ventures named Gustavo Burger, a former Kraft Heinz and Anheuser-Busch InBev executive, as AeroFarms’ new CEO.
“Consumers are choosing foods that naturally pack higher nutritional value into every bite,” Bradley Palmer, chairman and founder of Palm Ventures, said in a news release. “Gustavo Burger brings decades of world-class experience, and our job is to support his team as they deliver on that promise. AeroFarms is ready for what’s next.”
AeroFarms produces broccoli, kale and other microgreens at its 140,000-square-foot vertical farming facility in Ringgold, near the North Carolina border.
The acquisition “significantly reduces AeroFarms’ debt, prioritizes sustainable growth and long-term profitability, while deepening customer relationships, continuing to grow consumer-favorite microgreen varieties, and preserving AeroFarms’ Certified B mission,” according to the news release.
“Certified B” refers to a company that has met social sustainability, environmental and transparency standards set by the nonprofit B Lab.
AeroFarms had 133 employees as of March 27, according to a letter the company sent to government officials.
In a statement to Cardinal News on Thursday, Burger declined to provide a specific current employment figure but said the Pittsylvania County site “remains the heart of our operations, and the new ownership is committed to AeroFarms’ long-term success.”
“Our partnership with Palm Ventures significantly reduces the company’s debt burden and prioritizes sustainable, profitable growth, which is the foundation for everything else, including being a strong employer in Southside Virginia for years to come,” Burger said.
Burger said in the release that AeroFarms “is built on the most advanced aeroponic platform in the food industry, a category-defining product, and retail partnerships with the best names in the business.”
“My focus is to build on that foundation with the operational rigor it deserves, and create a business that performs as well as its products,” he said.
Palm Ventures, founded in 1992, takes “an unconstrained approach to building impactful companies that address significant problems facing human and planetary health,” according to the news release.
Its website lists investments in companies in the finance, education, healthcare, insurance and food and beverage sectors, among others.
Deal prevented shutdown
In December, AeroFarms announced that it faced permanent closure because its largest investor had changed priorities.
Between then and late March, the company sent multiple notices about its possible shutdown to government officials under a federal law that requires large employers to provide advance notice of major layoffs or plant closures.
During that time, AeroFarms changed course to say that the company had found short-term funding to stay open as it worked to close a sale of its business. More than 120 jobs were at stake.
On April 29, AeroFarms announced that it was canceling its previous warnings of possible mass layoffs and said that the company would become a “stronger, more stable business.”
At that time, an AeroFarms official declined to provide details but said the company looked forward to sharing more information later. Thursday’s announcement marks the first public update since then.
When AeroFarms first opened its Pittsylvania County location in 2022, it was based in New Jersey.
The company underwent Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023 and closed its New Jersey site to focus on Southside Virginia.
In August 2025, AeroFarms announced that it had refinanced its debt to support its Pittsylvania operation.
