Plenty Unlimited has raised $140 million in new funding to build more vertical farms around the U.S.
The new funding, which brings the company’s total cash haul to an abundant $500 million, was led by the existing investor Softbank Vision Fund also included the berry farming giant Driscoll’s. It’s a move that will give Driscoll’s exposure to Plenty’s technology for growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables indoors.
The funding comes as Plenty has inked agreements with both its new berry-interested investor and the Albertsons grocery chain. The company also announced plans to build a new farm in Compton, California.
The financing provides plenty of cash for a company that’s seeing a cornucopia of competition in the tech-enabled cultivated crop market raising a plethora of private and public capital.
In the past month, AppHarvest has agreed to be taken public by a special purpose acquisition company in a deal that would value that greenhouse tomato-grower at a little under $1 billion. And another leafy green grower, Revol Greens has raised $68 million for its own greenhouse-based bid to be part of the new green revolution.
Meanwhile, Plenty’s more direct competitor, Bowery Farming, is expanding its retail footprint to 650 stores even as Plenty touts its deal with Albertsons to provide greens to 431 stores in California.
Discoll’s seemed convinced by Plenty’s technology, although the terms of the agreement with the company weren’t disclosed.
“We looked at other vertical farms, and Plenty’s technology was one of the most compelling systems we’d seen for growing berries,” said J. Miles Reiter, Driscoll’s Chairman and CEO, in a statement. “We got to know Plenty while working on a joint development agreement to grow strawberries. We were so impressed with their technology, we decided to invest.”
