Californian agricultural startup Plenty has won a $140 million Series D funding round, as it continues to scale out its vertical farming solution.
The San Francisco-based company won the injection from Japan’s SoftBank, with additional funds from Driscoll’s, a fellow agtech firm that claims to command a third of America’s $6bn berry industry.
That partnership is key: Plenty plans to spend some of the cash rolling out its vision commercially alongside Driscoll’s and compatriot grocery brand Albertson’s.
The round boosts Plenty’s total funding beyond half a billion dollars, reflecting the need for innovation in farming amid growing populations and dwindling resources, and Plenty’s promising figures. The 2014-founded firm claims to use 95% less water and 99% less land that traditional farmers.
The funding also comes at a key time for the agriculture industry, as traditional harvests die down before the winter, and are severely affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“The recent disruptions in the global supply chain caused by the west coast wildfires and Covid-19 have highlighted how quickly our access to quality produce can be thwarted,” Plenty CEO Matt Barnard told Silicon Republic.
“Plenty’s controlled and resilient farms and local distribution made it easy for us to scale quickly, even during the pandemic, demonstrating that our indoor, vertical farm flourishes under environmental pressures and delivers delicious greens along with the sales that come with it,” he added.