May 23, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

It was in January 2022 that AgInvesting Weekly shared the news that indoor vertical farming company Plenty closed on a $400 million Series E – the largest funding round to-date for an indoor farming startup. 

Concurrently, Plenty also announced a new strategic commercial partnership with Walmart (which also participated in the Series E) to lead a new category of fresh products that will bring Plenty’s  pesticide-free, sustainable produce closer to Walmart customers on a year-round basis.

“We are pleased to work with a strong group of investors who recognize how Plenty’s proprietary approach to building and selling farms delivers a scalable, cost-efficient pathway to bringing fresh, clean produce to market 365 days a year, anywhere in the world,” said Arama Kukutai, CEO, Plenty at the time. 

“Having Walmart, as one of the world’s largest retailers, partner with us demonstrates the rising importance of indoor agriculture to the future of fresh and their belief in Plenty’s unique technology solution.”

“We believe Plenty is a proven leader in a new era of agriculture, one that offers pesticide-free, peak-flavor produce to shoppers every day of the year,” added Charles Redfield, chief merchandising officer, Walmart. “This partnership not only accelerates agricultural innovation, but reinforces our commitment to sustainability, by delivering a new fresh category that is good for people and the planet.”

Growing in 3D

Plenty grows leafy greens using a highly-efficient vertical system that produces pesticide-free crops on a year-round basis, in rows of 20-foot tall columns, or walls, rather than horizontally. This configuration, which uses 1 percent the space of conventional agriculture and less than 5 percent of the water, is highly efficient as it allows water to trickle down each column, enabling nutrients to be gravity fed rather than pumped into the system.

Plenty also uses cutting-edge LED lighting systems that emit less heat than traditional LEDs, along with microsensor technology and big data processing, that together can be used to produce high-quality produce at lower prices.

And because of the company’s unique configuration of this production system, Plenty is able to work with the forces of physics, not against them, enabling the company to scale multiple crops on one platform. This significantly saves on the cost of production to create resilience in our food systems against weather, location, pests, and climate, and to make produce accessible and affordable for every community. 

Now, Plenty has announced the official opening of its Plenty Compton Farm, the world’s most technologically advanced indoor vertical farm designed to grow up to 4.5 million pounds of leafy greens per year in a single city block. Supported by dozens of Plenty’s patent assets, including its novel 3D vertical architecture, this farm has the ability to achieve industry-leading yields that are up to 350 times the yield per acre of conventional farms. 

“After investing nearly a decade into research and development, ​​Plenty has cracked the code on a scalable platform for indoor farming,” said Kukutai. “With Plenty’s first commercial farm, we’re proving that our uniquely vertical indoor farms can deliver a reliable, year-round supply of fresh produce with positive unit economics.”

“This is the first step in putting indoor-grown produce on a path to becoming a meaningful part of the global food supply, and we’re honored to be taking that step in our home state of California with the community of Compton.”

Initially, the farm will grow four varieties of leafy greens: Baby Arugula, Baby Kale, Crispy Lettuce, and Curly Baby Spinach. With its first product just launching from the site, and after two years in development designing a new filtration system and analyzing nearly two billion data inputs from trials, the company perfected the spinach growing environment, and will be one of the only providers of vertically grown, pesticide-free spinach in the world.

Bringing Walmart’s significant investment in the vertical farming space to fruition, these leafy greens will now be available as a new Walmart brand for indoor-grown, pesticide-free produce that has already begun rolling out in Southern California stores.

Plenty’s products also will be available at Bristol Farms, Whole Foods Market stores in Northern California, local grocery retailers in the city of Compton, and as a featured meal ingredient on all Singapore Airlines flights out of the Los Angeles International Airport. 

“California agriculture is at the forefront of efforts to ensure climate-resilient food systems through the adoption of innovative technologies and practices,” said Secretary Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture. “Plenty’s new indoor vertical farm is an example of those efforts and provides an important additional method to grow fresh produce in urban centers, closer to consumers, reducing the draw on our natural resources.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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