San Francisco-based indoor vertical farming startup Plenty is bringing its vertical indoor farming technology to the Middle East, building its first overseas facility in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Founded in 2014 by Matt Barnard and Nate Storey in San Francisco, Plenty grows leafy greens including purple Siberian kale, red leaf lettuce, sorrel, and varieties of basil and chives using a highly-efficient vertical system that grows plants in rows of 20-foot tall columns rather than horizontally.

This configuration is highly efficient as it allows water to trickle down the column, and enables nutrients to be gravity fed rather than pumped into the system. The company also integrates 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 configuration of this production system, (which can produce up to 350 times more produce compared to the same area of traditional farmland while using only 1 percent of the water), Plenty is able to work with the forces of physics, not against them, enabling the company to save significantly on cost of production.

In July of last year Plenty made headlines after raising a record-setting $200 million Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund – the $100 billion all-stage tech fund headed by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son.  Other participants in the round which brought total funding for the startup to $226 milion, included affiliates of Louis M. Bacon, the founder of Moore Capital Management, and existing investors Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Finistere, DCM, Data Collective, and Bezos Expeditions.

With this significant backing and SoftBank’s connections, Plenty and SoftBank are turning their attention toward how Plenty’s vertical farming technology can be used in nations facing challenges including a difficult climate and food shortages.

Although advances in technology resulted in an increase in food production in the MENA region in the 1990s, the region is still expected to see a food deficit of between 50 million tons and 90 million tons by 2020. As a result, indoor vegetable production in the Middle East region has been gaining traction with both investors and startups. This is notably true in the UAE, which currently imports 80 percent of its fresh produce and therefore presents an arena of great potential growth.

“It’s in the middle of the desert, it’s hot, and these crops do not like heat,” Plenty co-founder Matt Barnard told Bloomberg. “There’s a fast-growing population in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that do not have access to fruits and vegetables.”

Although plans are to begin selling produce in the region early next year, Plenty’s 200,000 square-foot Middle East facility will be completed in phases over the course of a few years. Once fully operational, it will have the ability to produce the same volume of food as would be produced on several hundred acres of traditional farmland, and will be able to feed several million people.

Vertical Jump

The Middle East is not the only overseas target for Plenty. In January of this year the company announced its initial steps being taken toward its planned expansion into China and Japan.

At the time, company CEO Matt Barnard told Reuters that the company was adding to its team on the ground in China to scout out locations and distributors in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen for up to 300 of its vertical indoor farms across the country. The startup has also already established a team in Japan, and has secured farm sites in that country,

Despite the fact that Chinese consumers don’t often opt to eat raw vegetables, China is a highly strategic market to move into for Plenty, as its production system provides the perfect answer to two of China’s largest food challenges – safety and quality, and land degradation.

The reason that Chinese consumers don’t opt for raw foods is directly tied to safety concerns, with most fresh foods being fried or boiled to combat any possible agri-chemical or pollution residues. In contrast, China is home to 1.3 billion people, however it is also home to only 7 percent of the world’s arable land. And of this land, 40 percent is negatively affected by moderate to severe degradation brought on by excessive use of fertilizers and other non-sustainable production practices, reports Time. Compounding this problem is rampant urbanization, and the expectation that over the next 30 years, 300 million Chinese people will leave agriculture for cities – all while consumption rates continue to climb.

Plenty’s produce is organic and non-GMO, and is grown without the use of chemicals. To help consumers make the jump to trusting its produce, Plenty is also planning the integration of “experience centers” with each of its farms where consumers can sample the produce and learn how it is grown.

-Lynda Kiernan