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Natalie Portman, Other Celebs, Invest In Vertical Farming Startup Bowery
The sustainable agriculture startup, the largest vertical farming firm in the U.S., secured over $300 million from both individuals and investment groups to help expand its operations across the U.S.
$300M Investment Round Will Help
The Company Expand Its
Indoor Farms Across The U.S.
June 4, 2021
Natalie Portman | Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
Natalie Portman, an actor as well-known for her film roles as her dedication to causes ranging from the environment to animal welfare, has thrown her financial support behind a new investment round for Bowery Farming. The sustainable agriculture startup, the largest vertical farming firm in the U.S., secured over $300 million from both individuals and investment groups to help expand its operations across the U.S.
"At Bowery, we're reinventing a new supply chain that's simpler, safer, more sustainable and ultimately provides vibrantly flavorful produce unlike what's available today," Irving Fain, CEO, and Founder of Bowery Farming, said in a press release. "This infusion of new capital from Fidelity, other new investors, and the additional support of our long-term investor partners is an acknowledgment of the critical need for new solutions to our current agricultural system, and the enormous economic opportunity that comes with supporting our mission.
Portman’s investment is the latest in a series of big moves by the vegan activist to help grow companies that provide healthy, sustainable, and animal-friendly products to millions around the globe. In July of 2020, she joined others such as Oprah Winfrey and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in investing in milk-alternative startup Oatly. In November, she teamed with music artist John Legend in backing MycoWorks, a company creating vegan leather from fungus, to help raise more than $45 million.
“So now lots of people make fun of vegans, right? Lots of people make fun of anybody who cares about anything deeply, right?,” Portman said during a youth activism speech in 2019. “But I’m here to say, it is always a great thing to care…whether it’s environmental issues, animal rights, women’s rights, equality, never be afraid to show how much you care.”
Joining Portman in the latest investment round for Bowery, which has raised more than $465 million since its founding in 2014, were well-known plant-based eating advocates Lewis Hamilton and Chris Paul, as well as world-renowned chef and hunger advocate José Andrés and singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake.
Growth of vertical farming reaches new heights
So why is everyone from celebrities to investment groups throwing money at Bowery? Simply put, the skepticism around vertical farming that stunted early growth has been replaced with blooming enthusiasm in the wake of its success.
In the last year, Bowery has gone from selling produce in under 100 retail locations across the U.S. to nearly 800. According to Fain, these include such giants as Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Stop & Shop, Walmart, and Weis Markets.
“It’s definitely bigger than the pandemic,” Fain told The Spoon. “What you’re seeing is a food system that’s evolving and [people have a desire] to see transparency and traceability in the food system.”
Bowery presently has two vertical farming sites in New Jersey and Maryland, with a third slated to open in Bethlehem, PA later this year. Each industrial space features various greens and herbs (butter lettuce, cilantro, arugula, etc.) stacked vertically in trays and grown hydroponically using a state-of-the-art computer control system and LED lights. An average of 80,000 pounds of produce is generated each week using 95% less water than traditional farms and with zero pesticides or chemicals. And because these vertical farms can be built within cities, transport costs and their associated environmental impacts are drastically reduced.
While the focus for vertical farming remains firmly planted on greens, Bowery is testing new crops like tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. They are also making constant improvements to the artificial intelligence system that monitors the plants at all times. At any moment, the computer can make changes to improve the yield or alter the flavor of a particular crop.
“We achieve a plant vision system and that vision system takes photos of our crops in real-time and runs them through our machine learning algorithms,” Fain said in an interview with Tech at Bloomberg. “We know what’s happening with a crop right now and whether it’s healthy, but then also predict what we will see with this crop based on what we’ve seen in the past and what tweaks and changes we want to make.”
Yes, we know that sounds like some slice of a dystopian future, but vertical farming is quickly proving itself a necessary technology to help feed and sustain humanity. For Fain, he believes the ability to do all of this with fewer resources, chemicals, and independent changing climate conditions or unexpected global crises is something that should be celebrated and not feared.
“I actually view it as this incredibly optimistic opportunity to say, ‘Wow, like, isn't it amazing that technology has taken us to a point where something that we've done in a certain way for hundreds and hundreds of years with iteration and optimization can really be rethought and re-imagined in totality because of human creativity and human ingenuity?", he told MyClimateJourney. “And I think that's actually exciting and that's something that we should be happy about and optimistic about. And that to me is really the message in what we're building at Bowery.”
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USA - FLORIDA: St. Pete’s Brick Street Farms Gets Multi-Million-Dollar Investment From Lykes Bros
Lykes Bros., one of the oldest and largest agribusinesses in Florida, is putting a big bet on the future of farming as it invests in Brick Street Farms, an urban farm, and market in St. Petersburg
May 20, 2021
Photo credit: Brick Street Farms
Lykes Bros., one of the oldest and largest agribusinesses in Florida, is putting a big bet on the future of farming as it invests in Brick Street Farms, an urban farm and market in St. Petersburg.
Lykes is making a “significant” investment in Brick Street Farms, the two companies announced at a news conference Thursday. The amount of investment was not disclosed, but a news release described it as “multi-million dollar” investment. Lykes will take a 20 percent ownership stake in Brick Street Farms because of the deal, Mallory Dimmitt, vice president of strategic partnerships at Lykes, told the St. Pete Catalyst.
Brick Street Farms will use the investment to accelerate the expansion of Brick Street Farms hubs, an all-inclusive onsite farming and retail shopping experience in urban cores, said Shannon O’Malley, founder and CEO. The company has self-contained, environmentally sustainable THRIVE containers that will be placed in each hub. Each hub will grow between 16 to 20 acres of farmland on one-third acre lots.
Mallory Dimmitt, vice president at Lykes Bros., announces investment in Brick Street Farms while Nikki Fried, Florida Ag Commissioner, looks on.
The first new hub will open in St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District in late 2021, with an expansion to Tampa in early 2022 followed by more hubs on the east coast, O’Malley said.
“We are the future of farming, and our new investors have the perfect expertise to help us take our successful business model in sustainable farming to feed more people healthy food,” O’Malley said.
The two companies first connected in November at the Florida-Israel Agriculture Innovation Summit, hosted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Nikki Fried, Florida Department of Agriculture Commissioner.
The collaboration meets several goals, including feeding people in urban locations, fighting urban food deserts and food insecurity, bringing farm-to-fork produce closer to people and bringing cutting edge agriculture technology to everyone.
From left, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and Shannon O’Malley, founder and CEO, Brick Street Farms
Brick Street Farms is a hub of innovation and creativity and is the only female-founded and led company in the vertical farming industry, said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. He also highlighted the work of the company’s non-profit Desert Farms Foundation.
“Not only is Brick Street Farms working to make us healthier by providing us some of the best and freshest food around, but through its 501c3, Brick Street Farms is working to end food deserts through the Tampa Bay area,” Kriseman said.
Every urban environment struggles with food deserts, said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
“The problems that occur from those food deserts are often times for many communities insurmountable. This is a solution to so many problems,” Castor said.
She also praised the company’s business model. It is financially successful by providing produce to a number of restaurants, Castor said.
While an urban focus might seem like an unusual fit for company like Lykes, which owns hundreds of thousands of rural acres throughout the state, “We know from our experience that innovation is what moves the agriculture industry forward,” said Dimmitt, who will join the Brick Street Farms board of directors.
“In addition to innovations in sustainable production and the technology it uses, the job opportunities and related job training and skills are key to Florida’s future and to our health and wellness,” Dimmitt said. “What could be better medicine than high-quality nutrient-dense greens grown close to the consumer where they have direct access, all while creating community.”
Brick Street Farms, at 2233 3rd Ave. S. was founded in 2016 by O’Malley and her husband, Brad Doyle. Read more about O’Malley in St. Pete Catalyst‘s Hustle profile.
Bowery Farming Secures $300 Million To Continue US Expansion
The company has secured more than $472 million in funding to date, bringing its valuation to $2.3 billion
Bowery Farming has secured $300 million to continue the expansion of its network of indoor farms across the United States. The company has secured more than $472 million in funding to date, bringing its valuation to $2.3 billion.
The funding will provide resources to accelerate advancements in farm design and the BoweryOS, enabling more and more communities access to a reliable supply of locally-grown produce, year-round.
Accelerating technologies
“This infusion of new capital from Fidelity, other new investors, and the additional support of our long-term investor partners is an acknowledgment of the critical need for new solutions to our current agricultural system," said Irving Fain, CEO and Founder of Bowery Farming.
"Next to that, it's the enormous economic opportunity that comes with supporting our mission. This funding not only fuels our continued expansion but the ongoing development of our proprietary technology, which sits at the core of our business and our ability to rapidly and efficiently scale towards an increasingly important opportunity in front of us.”
“Bowery’s approach to indoor farming represents a meaningful disruption to the traditional produce supply chain, and its systems-based approach to engineering and farm design is unparalleled,” said Andy Wheeler, General Partner at GV. “I look forward to continuing to partner with the Bowery team as they build and scale the largest indoor farming network in the U.S. and bring more sustainable produce to consumers.”
Rapid growth
Now in over 850 grocery stores, Bowery has experienced more than 750% growth since January 2020 at brick-and-mortar retailers like Albertsons Companies, Giant Food, Walmart and Whole Foods Market, and more than quadrupled e-commerce sales through e-commerce platforms, including Amazon Fresh.
In January 2021, Injong Rhee (formerly VP at Google and CTO of Samsung Mobile) joined Bowery as Chief Technology Officer to oversee the seamless integration and ongoing development of technology across the growing network.
The Company is currently transforming an industrial site in Bethlehem, PA into its largest, most technologically advanced and sustainable farm yet, expanding its reach further into the Northeast and Pennsylvania region. Bowery will be breaking ground on additional large-scale commercial farms this year, and is actively engaged in identifying new farm locations in the United States with an eye towards global expansion.
25 May 2021
Singapore's Temasek Bets on 'Skyscraper Farms' As Growth Market
Temasek and German pharmaceutical major Bayer established Unfold, a 50-50 joint venture, last month. The company will develop and market seeds for vertical farming both in Singapore and at its California headquarters
Joint Venture With Bayer To Develop Seeds
To Boost Food Security In City-State
TAKASHI NAKANO, Nikkei staff writer
September 10, 2020
SINGAPORE -- Singapore's state-backed investment group Temasek Holdings has extended its business portfolio into urban farming, a concept that will aid the city-state in its quest to become more agriculturally self-sufficient.
Temasek and German pharmaceutical major Bayer established Unfold, a 50-50 joint venture, last month. The company will develop and market seeds for vertical farming both in Singapore and at its California headquarters.
Singapore produces less than 10% of the food it consumes. The government plans to raise the ratio to 30% by 2030.
Vertical farming, officials believe, is crucial to attaining that goal. The technique grows agroponic layers of crops under artificial light inside skyscrapers. Because the plants are not dependent on weather, the method is expected to generate large yields in a relatively quickly.
"Temasek is recognized as one of the leading investors in the food and agriculture segment," said Jurgen Eckhardt, head of Leaps by Bayer -- an investment arm of Bayer. "They have investments in, and relationships with, a range of vertical farming companies."
Bayer will provide plant genetic data to Unfold, which will first develop new varieties of lettuce, spinach and tomatoes, among other crops. The company will sell seeds to food producers.
Temasek will introduce companies to the technology and expertise at Unfold and other investment targets. Temasek holds a stake in Sustenir Agriculture, a Singaporean urban farming company, providing a channel for Sustenir to cultivate Unfold's high-yield seeds.
Vertical farming is projected to grow into a $12.77 billion market in 2026, according to Allied Market Research, up from $2.23 billion in 2018.
Temasek invested 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) into Bayer in 2018 -- funding which helped Bayer complete the acquisition of U.S. seed producer Monsanto.
The company anticipates further investments in the agricultural sector.
"Whether it's in the area of an alternative protein, aquaculture, or crop science, it's an area that requires actually more capital," said Temasek International CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara. "So far it's done well for us and we're still keen to invest more in it."
Temasek has expanded its portfolio of life sciences and agribusiness investments. Allocation in the domains stood at 8% at the end of March, or five points higher than five years earlier. The size of the holdings is about $17 billion.
The coronavirus pandemic has heightened concerns over food security. Thailand and other trading partners temporarily imposed restrictions on exports. The Singaporean government doled out 30 million Singapore dollars ($22 million) in subsidies this April to help companies produce more eggs, leafy vegetables and fish.
"In Singapore, with less than 0.8% arable land, vertical farming innovation is critical," said Unfold CEO John Purcell.
This year, Temasek has invested in startups that develop meat and fish substitutes, as well as plant-based milk. GIC, another Singaporean state investor, in May picked up shares in Apeel Sciences, a U.S. company that developed an artificial peel for fruits and vegetables to extend shelf life.
The less-than-stellar portfolio performance has also factored in Temasek's investments into agribusiness. For the year ended March, the company reported a return of minus 2.3%, the first negative result in four years. Declining stock values of domestic companies such as the banking group DBS Group Holdings and the conglomerate Sembcorp Industries were behind the setback.
When Singapore Airlines sought to raise up to S$15 billion in rescue funds this March, Temasek was the first to indicate it would sign on in light of its status as a major investor in the carrier. Saddled with its role as a financial provider of last resort, the state investment group's ability to reap returns from investments in agriculture and other growth sectors will sway its performance.
Temasek has also stepped up investment in advanced medical fields such as biopharmaceuticals in the past year, with stakes in 10 companies revealed in 2020 so far.
Vertex Venture Holdings, a Temasek unit that oversees a fund specializing in the medical field, has invested in more than 20 healthcare-related startups, including American drug developer Elevation Oncology in July.
"COVID-19 has shone a light on the importance of continued R&D investment," said Lori Hu, managing director of Vertex Ventures HC. "It has revealed critical unmet needs in the health care industry. We continue to actively look at new deals."
Leveraging its broad network, Vertex took a stake in Israeli telemedicine platform operator Datos Health in April and invested in India's IVF Access Hospitals, which specializes in infertility treatments, two months later.
Through its investments in the medical field, Temasek is also involved in the global race to develop coronavirus treatments. It was part of a group of investors to pour $250 million into Germany's BioNTech, which is jointly developing a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with Pfizer. South Korean drugmaker Celltrion, in which Temasek holds a roughly 10% stake, has brought a diagnostic kit to market in the U.S. last month.
Investments in biopharmaceutical developers carry high risks, but the payoff can be large when a treatment successfully reaches the market. Holdings in unlisted companies accounted for 48% of Temasek's portfolio as of March-end, up six points from a year earlier.
Lead photo: Courtesy of Unfold - Vertical farms use hydroponics to grow crops inside buildings.