Vertical farm gets $400 million boost from Walmart

Reuters Videos
2 年前

These leafy greens are part of one of the biggest ever deals in the indoor farming business.

Retail giant Walmart announced it is investing in indoor vertical farm Plenty

as part of a $400 million funding round

and will be buying leafy greens from them for its stores in California.

Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said the company was able to increase yield by 700% in two years

in its leafy green growing rooms.

Walmart said this path to yield is absolutely critical,

having chosen Plenty over nearly a dozen other indoor farms,

and sees this as an environmentally sustainable way of farming.

The fact that Plenty also has a path to growing strawberries and cherry tomatoes at scale,

and not just leafy greens, is another advantage.

Plenty isn't alone in raising big funds in recent months.

In May New York-based indoor vertical farming startup Bowery Farming raised $300 million.

Still, others have struggled.

AeroFarms said in October its deal to list on the stock market through a blank check company was terminated.