NEW YORK — Vertical indoor grower Bowery Farming has secured $300 million in a round led by Fidelity Management & Research Co., totaling more than $472 million of funding to date.
This addition comes with follow-on investment from existing investors GV (formerly Google Ventures), General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Temasek, Groupe Artémis, as well as new participation from Amplo and Gaingels, a fund representing the LGBTQ community and allies, according to a news release.
More individual investors in the round include plant-based eating advocates such as Lewis Hamilton, Chris Paul and actress Natalie Portman, as well as world-renowned chef and hunger advocate José Andrés and singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake.
Bowery Farming will use the funds to continue expanding its network of smart indoor farms across the U.S., accelerate its technology, support ongoing research and product innovation efforts to bring crops beyond leafy greens to market, and recruit talent to meet demand.
Now in more than 850 grocery stores, Bowery Farming has experienced more than 750% growth since January 2020 at brick-and-mortar retailers such as Albertsons Cos., (including Safeway and Acme), Giant Food, Walmart and Whole Foods Market, according to the release. The company has more than quadrupled e-commerce sales through e-commerce platforms, including Amazon Fresh.
“This infusion of new capital from Fidelity, other new investors, and the additional support of our long-term investor partners is acknowledgement of the critical need for new solutions to our current agricultural system, and the enormous economic opportunity that comes with supporting our mission,” founder and CEO Irving Fain said in the release.
The BoweryOS operating system integrates software, hardware, sensors, computer vision systems, artificial intelligence and robotics to automate all operations.
In January 2021, Injong Rhee, formerly vice president at Google and chief technology officer of Samsung Mobil, joined Bowery as chief technology officer to oversee the integration and ongoing development of technology across the growing network.
The company is building its latest farm in Bethlehem, Pa., and will break ground on more large-scale commercial farms this year while identifying new U.S. farm locations while considering global expansion.
Earlier in May, the company opened Farm X, its innovation hub for plant science in Kearny, N.J. The facility has an in-house breeding program and research lab, focusing on strawberries, root vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers and more.
