View details of this raise on Seedstage

Cooperstown, NY

Building a farmer-owned marketplace that connects consumers with local food while expanding tools for small farm success.

• Farmer-led mission: Founded by farmers to serve the needs of small, independent producers.
• Tech with purpose: Offers SNAP Online and is expanding with wholesale and POS capabilities.
• Community ownership: Cooperative model includes farmer and employee ownership.
• Rapid growth: 900+ farms and 23,000+ shoppers already using the platform.
• Food equity: Helps make fresh, local food more accessible to low-income families.

GrownBy is a farmer- and employee-owned cooperative building a digital marketplace to connect local food producers directly with consumers across the U.S. and Canada. By giving farmers full control over their pricing and products, while providing tools for operations, sales, and customer management, GrownBy offers an equitable alternative to traditional grocery supply chains. The company is focused on expanding food access through features like SNAP Online acceptance, while enhancing farm profitability by allowing producers to keep a significantly larger share of each sale.

The fundraising campaign will support the development of a wholesale marketplace and a point-of-sale terminal to serve institutional buyers and farmers market vendors. GrownBy plans to improve its platform and expand access to its services during a period of rapid growth, with over 900 farms and 23,000 shoppers already using the app. The company’s mission is to ensure long-term sustainability for small farms while making local, high-quality food accessible to more communities.

Company Info

GrownBy is a cooperative marketplace platform that connects consumers with local farms, supporting sustainable food systems and farmer profitability.

GrownBy is a farmer-owned, cooperative e-commerce marketplace connecting over 900 farms with more than 23,000 shoppers across the United States and Canada. It offers a wide array of local food products such as produce, meat, cheese, and flowers, and supports Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscriptions and à la carte purchasing through its app and website. GrownBy is designed to make local food more accessible and to provide farmers with tools that support sales, operations, and marketing. The platform emphasizes transparency and direct farmer-to-consumer relationships, with farmers retaining at least 95% of each sale.

Founded by agricultural and tech professionals with deep ties to farming, GrownBy addresses critical issues in food systems, including farmer viability and food access. It provides unique features such as free SNAP/EBT integration for farms and AI-based customization for CSA shares. The cooperative’s long-term vision includes expanding into wholesale markets and developing point-of-sale solutions to serve vendors at farmers markets. With backing from government agencies and nonprofit organizations, and a model that returns profits to member-owners, GrownBy aims to build a sustainable, tech-enabled local food ecosystem.