November 21, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

Oishii, a U.S.-based indoor farming technology startup that specializes in high-end strawberries, has reportedly secured $150 million in a Series B fundraising round. Led by climate fund Resilience Reserve, the round also extended to Miyako Capital as well as NTT, Bloom8, McWin Capital Partners, Mizuho Bank and Yaskawa Electric Corporation. As of early 2024, Oishii’s Series B fundraising tally hovered at $134 million, causing the company to keep the floodgates open amid robust investor demand, per Fortune.

Oishii, which translates as “delicious” in Japanese, was co-founded by Hiroki Koga, who made it his mission to introduce Japanese fruit culture to the U.S. While vertically farmed strawberries present more of a challenge compared with crops like kale and arugula, Koga was interested in shifting the industry focus on the berries from quantity to quality, where he could charge a higher price. Vertical farming was commercialized in Japan before anywhere else, with the technology having been perfected by electronics giants such as Toshiba, Sharp and Panasonic.

Oishii, whose products include the Omakase Berry, Koyo Berry and Rubī Tomato, makes what it considers the world’s sweetest strawberries using vertical farming technology and seeds from Japan. Without vertical farming technology, the Japanese variety of strawberries would not grow on American soil.

Earlier this year, Oishii directed the Series B proceeds at that time to debut a solar-powered indoor farming facility in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, dubbed the Amatelas Farm, using robots to detect the ripeness of the fruit and produce 20x more strawberries. Demand for Oishii’s strawberries, which are grown without pesticides and sold at retailers like Whole Foods, is constantly outpacing supply, as the company seeks to ramp up production and create what Koga described to CNBC as the Tesla of agriculture.

Image Source: Oishii via Instagram

Vertical farming is a capital intensive business that has yet to be thrust into the mainstream. In recent weeks, Bowery, a vertical farming startup that had reached unicorn status, was forced to shutter its operations when neither the funding nor a buyer came through. However, investors believe Oishii has a secret weapon.

Tech entrepreneur Rob Reid of Oishii backer Resilience Reserve is cited by Fortune as saying, “For me, it’s all about the strawberries. Untold billions of dollars have poured into the vertical farming of leafy greens, which are largely unbrandable and to my palate, completely impossible to sell on a taste or quality premium. Oishii uniquely delivers strawberries and increasingly tomatoes at scale in a way that’s radically differentiated, because they are simply the tastiest products in either category in the U.S.”

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