urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

How does urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) navigate the volatile Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market when analysts project 2025 revenue to land aroud $61.82 million?

You're looking at a company that's trying to pivot from its cannabis roots, evidenced by securing a major $24 million construction contract in the Midwest and diversifying into commercial sectors like hospitality and healthcare in 2025.

This story isn't just about design and engineering; it's a high-stakes lesson in strategic diversification, especially with the stock trading near its 52-week low of $0.21 and a Nasdaq delisting determination hanging over it.

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) History

You're looking for the foundational story of urban-gro, Inc., and what really shaped its current position-which, honestly, is a complex mix of aggressive growth and near-term financial challenges. The company didn't start as the integrated design-build firm you see today; it was a focused equipment provider that strategically acquired its way into a full-service model. This evolution is key to understanding its current operations and financial structure.

Here's the quick math on its trajectory: a lighting company founded in 2014 used a series of strategic acquisitions and a NASDAQ uplisting to transform into a full-spectrum design and construction management provider for the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) sector, plus other commercial markets.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Founding Timeline

Year established

The company was originally formed in March 2014 as a Colorado limited liability company, initially focusing on engineering and manufacturing lighting equipment for the indoor horticulture market.

Original location

The company's initial and current headquarters location is Lafayette, Colorado.

Founding team members

The company was founded by Bradley Nattrass, who also serves as the Chairman and CEO, and Tavo Gutierrez.

Initial capital/funding

While the company has raised a total of $2.55M in funding over two rounds, it also completed a Post IPO funding round of $10M in December 2023. The initial funding supported its start as a specialized equipment firm. The later funding was essential for its expansion strategy. To be fair, the total capital raised is a better indicator of its early financial backing.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Evolution Milestones

The company's history is a clear roadmap of vertical integration, moving from a single-service provider to a full-stack design-build firm. This table highlights the critical steps that created the modern urban-gro, Inc. business model.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Transformative Moments

The most transformative moments for urban-gro, Inc. weren't just the acquisitions, but the strategic decision to become a full-service design-build integrator, moving beyond just equipment sales. This shift allowed them to generate revenue from professional services, which is a more defensible and higher-margin business. Still, the near-term financial reality is dominated by compliance issues.

The company's trailing twelve-month (TTM) revenue as of September 30, 2024, was $58.4M, but TTM earnings were negative at -$19.5M. This highlights the cost of the aggressive acquisition and integration strategy, which has strained the balance sheet.

The most pressing transformative moment is happening right now, in late 2025, as the company fights to maintain its public listing.

• The Design-Build Pivot: The string of acquisitions from 2019 to 2022 was the single most important strategic pivot. It transformed the company from a lighting vendor to an integrated professional services and design-build firm for the CEA, industrial, and healthcare sectors.
• NASDAQ Compliance Crisis: As of November 2025, urban-gro, Inc. is under multiple non-compliance notices from Nasdaq. The company is defintely facing delisting risk, a major threat to its ability to raise capital.
• 2025 Financial Deadlines: The company must regain compliance with the minimum stockholders' equity of $2.5 million and the minimum bid price of $1.00 per share by December 31, 2025, and January 28, 2026, respectively.

For a deeper dive into the numbers behind these challenges, you should look at Breaking Down urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Finance: draft a 13-week cash view by Friday, specifically modeling the impact of potential capital raises to meet the $2.5 million equity requirement.

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Ownership Structure

urban-gro, Inc. is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq Capital Market, but its ownership structure is currently defined by a high concentration of insider holdings relative to institutional investment, which aligns management's interests with shareholders but also limits the liquidity and broad institutional support often seen in larger peers.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Current Status

As of November 2025, urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) is a public company listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market, but it is under severe scrutiny for multiple compliance failures, which is a critical near-term risk. The company has received a determination letter from Nasdaq for failing to timely file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2025, adding to existing deficiencies.

The company is operating under a conditional extension from a Nasdaq Hearings Panel, and to maintain its listing, it must meet several non-negotiable financial and operational deadlines. This is a defintely a high-stakes situation for current owners and potential investors.

• Regain compliance with the Timely Filing Requirement for all delinquent SEC reports (including the 2024 Form 10-K and 2025 Q1, Q2, and Q3 10-Qs) by December 31, 2025.
• Maintain a minimum stockholders' equity of at least $2.5 million by December 31, 2025.
• Achieve a minimum bid price of $1.00 per share for at least 10 consecutive business days by January 28, 2026.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Ownership Breakdown

The company's ownership is split primarily between public shareholders and company insiders, including executives and directors. The insider stake is substantial, which means a significant portion of the company's equity is controlled by the people running the business day-to-day. You can dive deeper into the market sentiment and who is buying with Exploring urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Here's the quick math on who holds the shares, based on data available in late November 2025:

urban-gro, Inc.'s Leadership

The company is steered by a core leadership team that blends engineering expertise with financial and operational management, crucial for a design-build and systems integration firm. The CEO, Bradley Nattrass, is also a founder, which is common in companies transitioning from high-growth to operational efficiency.

• Bradley Nattrass, MBA: Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Board. He is a founder and has served as CEO since March 2017, providing long-term strategic continuity.
• Dick Akright, MBA: Chief Financial Officer. He brings over 30 years of experience, joining the company in August 2019 to manage the financial strategy.
• Christian Monson: Executive Vice President, General Counsel.
• Chris Cullens: Executive Vice President, Construction Services.
• Ryan Ninness: Senior Vice President, Technology.

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Mission and Values

urban-gro, Inc. defines its purpose beyond simply selling equipment; its mission is to deliver comprehensive, integrated design and engineering solutions for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) facilities, emphasizing client success and operational excellence.

This commitment is defintely critical right now, especially as the company navigates market headwinds and works to maintain a minimum stockholders' equity of $2.5 million by the end of 2025 to meet Nasdaq listing requirements. Exploring urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why? offers further insight into the stakeholders backing this strategy.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Core Purpose

The company's cultural DNA centers on translating complex, multi-disciplinary projects into streamlined, high-performing facilities. They are not just suppliers; they are architects and engineers aiming for holistic operational success.

Official mission statement

The core mission is straightforward: to achieve extraordinary product quality and client service by delivering integrated solutions and expertise across the entire facility lifecycle, from initial design through ongoing operational support.

• Focus on superior quality and unparalleled client service.
• Provide integrated design, engineering, and construction management solutions.
• Commit to optimizing resource use and operational efficiency for all clients.

Vision statement

urban-gro's long-term aspiration is to be recognized as the global leader in purpose-built, turnkey indoor CEA facilities, which is a significant strategic step beyond their 2024 reported revenue of $61.9 million. This vision drives their current diversification and strategic streamlining, such as the proposed sale of their 2WR subsidiary in 2025 to refocus on the CEA sector.

• Be the global leading provider for purpose-built turnkey indoor CEA facilities.
• Expand service capabilities to act as a single point of responsibility for clients.
• Contribute to Environmental Sustainability by designing facilities that use less waste, water, and carbon.

urban-gro, Inc. slogan/tagline

The company's tagline is a clear, action-oriented phrase that encapsulates their end-to-end service model and commitment to their client's goals.

• Your Vision - Built.

Here's the quick math on market perception: analysts currently forecast urban-gro, Inc.'s revenue for the 2025 fiscal year to be around $79.38 million, a number that hinges directly on their ability to deliver on this vision and convert their substantial project backlog into completed work.

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) How It Works

urban-gro, Inc. operates as a specialized, integrated professional services and design-build firm, delivering turnkey solutions for complex Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) facilities, plus growing diversification into industrial and healthcare sectors. The company creates value by combining high-level architectural and engineering design with the procurement and integration of mission-critical environmental equipment systems, all managed through a single, streamlined process.

For 2025, Wall Street analysts forecast urban-gro, Inc.'s revenue to reach approximately $1.008 billion, reflecting an aggressive anticipated conversion of its project backlog and market expansion, despite the company's financial health being rated as 'WEAK' by some data providers, with a stock price of $0.242 as of November 21, 2025.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Product/Service Portfolio

urban-gro, Inc.'s Operational Framework

The company's operational framework centers on a proprietary Design-Build delivery method, which simplifies project execution for clients by offering a single point-of-contact from initial concept through final commissioning and long-term support. This integrated approach minimizes complexity and reduces the risk of coordination failures often seen in multi-vendor projects.

• Concept-to-Operation: The process starts with intent-driven architectural design and engineering, ensuring all systems-from lighting to environmental controls-are precisely integrated to meet both capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) goals.
• Multi-Disciplinary Team: urban-gro employs a team of over 150 multi-disciplinary, in-house professionals, including architects, engineers, and horticulturalists, to deliver a cohesive solution.
• Value Creation: Value is created by optimizing cultivation facilities for maximum yield and efficiency, reducing waste, water consumption, and carbon emissions for clients globally. The global vertical farming market is expected to reach $17 billion by 2025, providing a massive addressable market for this specialization.
• Post-Project Partnership: Unlike many contractors, the firm emphasizes a long-term partnership, offering its gro-care maintenance and support services to maintain asset efficiency after project completion.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Strategic Advantages

urban-gro, Inc.'s market success hinges on its ability to deliver complex, high-stakes projects in highly regulated environments, particularly in the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) sector.

• Integrated Turnkey Solution: Offering a full suite of services from design to construction and equipment integration under one roof simplifies the entire project lifecycle for clients. This is defintely a key differentiator, especially for large-scale, complex builds.
• Specialized Expertise: Deep, proven knowledge in the technically complex CEA sector, including cannabis and food production, gives them a significant edge over generalist engineering firms.
• Vendor-Agnostic Approach: The company does not manufacture its own equipment, allowing it to select the best available technologies from various vendors to create customized solutions that align precisely with a client's budget and specific operational goals.
• Diversification Beyond Cannabis: While historically focused on cannabis, the strategic push into food-focused CEA, industrial, and healthcare design-build projects reduces reliance on a single, volatile market, positioning them for broader growth. You can learn more about the company's ownership structure and investor sentiment by Exploring urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) How It Makes Money

urban-gro, Inc. makes money by operating as an integrated professional services and design-build firm, offering a full suite of solutions for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and other commercial sectors. This essentially means they generate revenue from two primary sources: selling high-margin, value-added professional services like architectural and engineering design, and selling lower-margin, customized environmental equipment systems and construction design-build services to execute those designs.

urban-gro, Inc.'s Revenue Breakdown

While urban-gro, Inc. is actively diversifying into commercial sectors like industrial and healthcare, with these non-CEA markets accounting for approximately 70% of 2023 revenue, the fundamental financial engine is split between services and product integration. The full fiscal year 2025 revenue is projected to be more than $84.0 million, representing a growth of at least 17.4% over the prior year's reported revenue.

The company's revenue streams, based on the core business model as of November 2025, are broken down into the following key segments, with the percentages reflecting the typical mix for an integrated design-build and systems integrator firm.

Business Economics

The core economic driver for urban-gro, Inc. is the shift toward higher-margin Professional Services, which act as the 'tip of the spear' for securing larger, lower-margin Integrated Systems and Equipment Sales contracts. The name of the game is managing this mix.

• Gross Margin Targets: The gross profit margins vary significantly by segment. The high-value Architectural and Engineering design services target margins between 30% and 60%. In contrast, the Customized equipment systems and Design-Build work, which make up the bulk of the revenue, target lower margins, typically in the mid-teens to mid-thirty percent range.
• Cost Structure: The company is focused on cost optimization, expecting a year-over-year reduction of more than $8.0 million in operating expenses in 2024, primarily from General and Administrative (G&A) expense cuts. This is a defintely necessary move to achieve profitability.
• Project Backlog: The business health is strongly indicated by its project backlog, which was reported at $110 million as of December 31, 2023. This backlog provides a clear line of sight into future revenue and is a key metric for evaluating the sustainability of the business model.
• Diversification Hedge: The strategic move to diversify away from the volatile Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market, with 70% of 2023 revenue tied to non-CEA commercial sectors, is a deliberate effort to stabilize revenue and mitigate industry-specific risks.

If you want a deeper dive into the company's long-term strategic direction, you should review their Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO).

urban-gro, Inc.'s Financial Performance

As of November 2025, the company's financial performance shows a firm in transition, working to convert high-volume, low-margin business into sustainable, profitable growth, as guided by its commitment to achieving positive Adjusted EBITDA.

• Total Revenue: The company's full-year 2024 guidance projected revenue of more than $84.0 million. The trailing twelve months (TTM) revenue as of late 2024 was approximately $58.24 million, illustrating the volatility and the need to hit the higher guidance target to show growth.
• Profitability: For the full fiscal year 2023, the company reported a Net Loss of $(18.7) million. However, the company's 2024 outlook calls for achieving a Positive Adjusted EBITDA, which is the near-term financial milestone investors are watching closely.
• Gross Margin: The gross profit margin has fluctuated, hitting 20% in Q1 2024, but dropping to 12.65% in the Q3 2024 period, highlighting the impact of revenue mix-a higher proportion of lower-margin equipment sales drags down the overall margin.
• Liquidity: A key risk indicator is the company's Current Ratio, which was reported at 0.74, meaning its current assets are not sufficient to cover its current liabilities, indicating a tight liquidity position. The high Debt/Equity ratio of 2.69 also points to significant financial leverage.

The financial picture is one of high operational leverage and a clear strategic path toward higher-margin services, but the current metrics show a business still navigating a challenging market and tight liquidity.

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) Market Position & Future Outlook

urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO) is at a critical inflection point in late 2025, positioned as a highly specialized systems integrator within the rapidly expanding Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) market, but facing immediate and severe financial compliance risks.

The company's future hinges on successfully executing its merger plan and pivoting its integrated Design-Build services toward the more stable food and commercial sectors, moving away from the volatile cannabis industry.

Competitive Landscape

You need to see urban-gro not just against equipment suppliers, but against the full spectrum of CEA service providers. While the global CEA market is projected to hit a massive $54.56 billion in 2025, UGRO's market share is a niche play, focused on the complex engineering and design-build segment.

Here's the quick math on how UGRO stacks up against key players in the wider CEA and equipment distribution space based on 2025 revenue forecasts, recognizing that UGRO's analyst consensus revenue of $1,007,852,695 is defintely optimistic given its current $3.11 million market capitalization.

Hydrofarm Holdings Group, with a projected 2025 revenue of around $196.73 million, is primarily a distributor of equipment and supplies. AppHarvest, with TTM revenue of $22.43 million as of November 2025, represents the CEA operators who are UGRO's clients, but their financial struggles reflect the capital-intensive nature of the CEA end-market.

Opportunities & Challenges

The path forward is clear: survive the compliance deadline, then execute the pivot. The opportunities are compelling, but the near-term risks are existential. You can read more about the company's core values here: Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of urban-gro, Inc. (UGRO).

Industry Position

urban-gro's industry standing is defined by its technical specialization and its current precarious financial health.

• The company's primary strength is its position as a 'single point of accountability' provider, integrating complex environmental systems-like lighting, climate control, and fertigation (nutrient delivery)-into a unified Design-Build process.
• Its financial health is rated as 'WEAK,' with a low score of 0.63, highlighting substantial ongoing challenges.
• The focus on the non-cannabis food CEA market, which is driven by rising global food demand and climate concerns, provides a massive long-term tailwind. The global CEA market is expanding at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 14.5%.
• The immediate threat of delisting from the Nasdaq Capital Market is the most pressing issue, eclipsing all operational performance metrics in the near-term.