Vertical Farming Startup Expands Through New Retail Deals With Whole Foods, Safeway
Vertical farming startup Plenty is ramping up its retail distribution through two new deals with Whole Foods Market and Safeway.
South San Francisco, CA
By Katie Burke – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times
A South San Francisco farming startup is quickly growing its retail roots after landing new distribution deals with two of the area's largest grocers.
Vertical agriculture company Plenty will soon stock the produce shelves at a handful of Whole Foods Market and Safeway locations across the Bay Area to mark the beginning of what the startup is hoping will be a widespread push into new retailers and restaurants. Plenty's vegetables first began selling in retail outlets last year and are now available through Good Eggs, Berkeley Bowl, Bi-Rite Market and the robotic burger restaurant, Creator.
Plenty grows its produce hydroponically, meaning it feeds the plant without having it rooted in soil. By cutting water consumption, shortening the supply chain and shrinking the amount of space needed to grow produce, Plenty will be able to deliver more produce at a faster rate, Plenty CEO Matt Barnard previously told the San Francisco Business Times.
Matt Barnard, CEO and CoFounder, Plenty Inc.
Since it was founded in 2013, Plenty has raised more than $400 million, $175 million of which was raised as part of a Series C round the company closed last June. The round pushed the company's valuation to its current $1.05 billion.
The latest infusion of capital has helped fund the company's expansion to Los Angeles, where it's in the process of opening a new 95,000-square-foot farm in Compton. The new facility is expected to begin supplying produce like bok choy, mizuna, fennel, and kale to retail partners by the end of this year.
The company's South San Francisco farm, which launched last summer, is on track to hit full capacity before the end of the year. At that point, it will be able to supply more than 100 grocery partners throughout the Bay Area. Plenty also operates a test farm in Wyoming, where it experiments with different seeds and varietals.
Plenty is ultimately aiming to have as many as 500 vertical farms stationed in highly populated, urban areas around the world.
"We are able to deliver a product that’s both better than and at a price that is less than anything that’s in the market," Barnard previously said. "You are going to see us on more and more shelves. You going to be able to find us, have us delivered to your home. We want our product in more people’s hands and mouths."