Local Bounti secures $15M in funding
Indoor agriculture company Local Bounti has secured $15 million in additional cash to fund its working capital as part of its amended credit facility with Cargill Financial Services International.
Local Bounti said with this new amended credit facility, Cargill Financial Services provides $15 million in working capital, which is $5 million more than the company’s previous expectation. Local Bounti said it continues to seek opportunities to lower its cost of capital and evaluate opportunities for construction financing to supplement or replace existing debt.
"We are pleased with the ongoing support of our lender and their flexibility in structuring a credit facility that allows us to continue scaling the business in a fashion that will allow us to achieve our goals,” Kathleen Valiasek, chief financial officer for Local Bounti, said in a news release. “We continue to focus on operational efficiency across our organization and have made important strides in controlling costs."
Growth plans
CEO Craig Hurlbert, who returned to the helm of Local Bounti in early 2024, said the funding helps fuel the company’s growth and its plan to become the most efficient controlled environmental agriculture producer.
“We have made incredible progress with the development of our Stack & Flow Technology, now on full display at our Georgia facility where it has enabled us to double run-rate production,” he said in the release. “This integration has been instrumental in improving our crop quality and turns at the facility resulting in a step change in shipment volume.”
Hurlbert said the company’s Stack & Flow technology is at the center of its new greenfield facilities in Washington and Texas.
"With these facilities in place, we will have a national network of growing facilities that can efficiently serve our customers with added capacity to meet customer demand for other leafy green varieties and value-added SKUs,” he said in the release.
Hurlbert said the company also plans to add spinach, arugula, 50-50 blend and power greens to its portfolio by the end of the third quarter of 2024.
Related: Local Bounti shares ambitious expansion and sustainability goals
