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Photo via Farmigo.

Seattleites interested in buying food from local farmers and producers have a new tech-powered option available.

Farmigo, which calls itself the largest online farmers market, launched today in the Seattle-Tacoma region. The company, fresh off a $16 million funding round, offers a marketplace that connects farmers with customers who can place orders online and pick up their food at various pickup sites during a two-hour window on Wednesday each week.

Farmigo founder Benzi Roden.
Farmigo founder Benzi Roden. Photo via Farmigo.

The idea is to give people an easy and convenient way to buy local food without having to attend a farmers market. It also allows food producers to reach more customers.

Farmigo is working with 30 producers in Washington state at launch, including Farmbox Greens, Macrina, and others. There are more than 250 items available to purchase on the site today, ranging from fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat, and pantry items.

Farmigo gives producers 60 cents to the dollar, which it says is triple the industry standard. Volunteers at the pickup sites, meanwhile, can get up to 70 percent off their groceries, or earn 10 percent of proceeds if the site is a school.

“We’re working with passionate like-minded local farms and producers such as Helsing Junction and Crown S Ranch to name a few, who are aligned with our mission to create a better, more sustainable food system,” Farmigo founder and CEO Benzi Ronen said in a statement. “Our model allows us to reduce food waste since we have no inventory, while also giving farmers and artisans a larger cut as we collapse the distribution chain.”

Seattle is Farmigo’s fourth market. Founded three years ago in Brooklyn, the company already offers its service to more than 15,000 families each month in 350 neighborhoods across New York, New Jersey, and Northern California. Farmigo, which is seeing a 5X year-over-year growth in sales this year, has raised $26 million to date.

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While some companies like Blue Apron and Plated have had success combining fresh food and technology, others like Good Eggs and GrubMarket are struggling to find the right formula. Now-defunct Seattle startup Farmstr, which helped small organic farmers sell products directly to consumers, shut down earlier this year before founder Janelle Maiocco and a few colleagues launched a similar service called Barn2Door one month later.

farmigo11Ronen, the Farmigo founder, told GeekWire that he welcomes competition that increases access to farm-fresh food. But he did note several differences between Farmigo and a service like Barn2Door.

“We’re an online farmers market, where consumers can buy exactly what they want, in the quantities they want, unlike a service like Barn2Door.com that is closer to a [community-supported agriculture], where people buy set boxes/shares and/or bulk quantities of what farmers have to sell at a certain time,” Ronen said.

He added that Farmigo has a unique distribution model that does not focus on delivery.

“We drop-off food orders at convenient central pick-up sites that are organized by passionate volunteers, interested in rallying their communities around farm-fresh food,” Ronen said.

Forbes noted in this article from 2013 how Farmigo originally built a SaaS product that helped farmers manage their supply chain but has since pivoted to its current consumer-focused model, which seems to be working well thus far.

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