That's a lot of salad greens.
From AgFunderNews, May 25:
Bowery bags ‘biggest-ever’ vertical farming raise with $300m Series C
Bowery has closed a $300 million Series C round, marking what it claims is “the largest private fundraise to date for an indoor farming company.” New investor Fidelity Management & Research led the round. Amplo and Gaingels also came on board as new backers.
Existing investors GV, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Temasek, and Groupe Artémis re-upped in the round.
A few celebrities also took the opportunity to add vertical farming to their portfolios. including Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, basketball player Chris Paul, actor Natalie Portman, singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake, and chef and hunger advocate José Andrés.
Bowery has now raised $472 million in total funding and claims a valuation of $2.3 billion.
“It’s a really exciting milestone for the whole company and everybody is really thrilled,” founder and CEO Irving Fain tells AFN.
“Not just because it recognizes the work that we’ve done, but I take it equally for the work that’s still ahead and the belief of some really great partners in terms of what we’re going to accomplish in this segment.”
This landmark moment for Bowery offers Fain an opportunity to reflect on how far the New York-based startup has come since launching in 2015 – and where the broader indoor farming segment may be headed.
Bowery’s sales and growth data paint an impressive picture, perhaps helping to explain the sizeable Series C raise. It claims to maintain category leadership in over 850 stores where its packaged leafy greens and herbs are sold. It also boasts a 750% boost in retail growth since January 2020 while adding Albertsons supermarkets to its list of retailers.
E-commerce sales have jumped 400%, too.
“I think it’s becoming very clear that the demand for what we’re doing at Bowery is strong and the technology and the progress that we’ve made is really evidence [of that] to the team and the broader community. I think we felt like starting to expand more, quickly, made a lot of sense,” Fain says.....
....MUCH MORE
And at AgFunderNews, May 27
Future Food : How Bowery reached $2.3bn and is building its biggest farm yet
