NYC-based vertical farming company Bowery announced today it has raised $300 million in Series C funding from a boatload of investors. Fidelity Management and Research Company led the round, which also saw participation from GV, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Temasek, Groupe, Artémis, and Amplo and Gaingels. Additional investors included Lewis Hamilton, Chris Paul, Natalie Portman, Justin Timberlake, and José Andrés. The round is one of the largest ever raised by a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company, and brings Bowery’s total funding to date to $$72 million.
The funds will fuel further development of the proprietary technology setup that powers Bowery’s network of vertical farms. Currently, the company operates two vertical farming facilities, one in New Jersey and one in Maryland, and has a third under construction in Pennsylvania. These are all equipped with the BoweryOS, which the company calls its “central nervous system of the business.” Software, hardware, sensors, computer vision systems, and robotics work together to manage the farms and collect and analyze valuable data on crops that can be used across Bowery’s entire network.
The company will break ground on additional farms this year. No specific cities or regions have yet been announced.
Bowery will also use its new funds to recruit new talent and branch into crops beyond the leafy greens the company is currently known for. Here, too, the company hasn’t announced specifics. Several companies, including Plenty, Oishii, and Spread, have said they will grow strawberries in the future. AeroFarms is even considering blueberries. Other non-leafy-green crops that have been grown on vertical farms include peppers, tomatoes, flowers, and even potato seedlings.
Regardless of the crop, Bowery’s larger aim is to transform the food supply chain to grow food closer to the consumers that actually buy it. When we talked earlier this year, company founder and CEO Irving Fain mentioned our evolving food system, and the need for “transparency and traceability in the food system.”
Bowery greens are currently in over 850 grocery stores, including Albertsons. And once the Pennsylvania farm is complete, Bowery will be able to serve about 50 million people within a 200-mile radius.
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