Little Leaf Farms raises $90 million to fully fund East Coast expansion

Devens, Mass.-based Little Leaf Farms has raised $90 million in debt and equity financing to build new East Coast sites to supply large retailers and foodservice providers.

Equilibrium Capital led the latest funding round with Coppermine Capital, joining founding investor Bill Helman and Pilot House Associates, according to a news release. Bank of America has also committed more than $20 million, with another $20 million planned.

“After opening our third greenhouse in Massachusetts last summer amid the pandemic, we have proven that we can bring the company to scale unlike any other,” founder-CEO Paul Sellew said in the release.

“We continue to have record sales every week, and we only see that continuing.”

The company doubled its retail sales to $38 million from 2019, and its lettuce is in more than 2,500 East Coast stores, according to the release.

The controlled environment agriculture sector’s rapid expansion highlights the need to deploy advanced farming technologies and use resources more sustainably.

“Creating local, year-round food economies just makes sense,” Sellew said in the release.

With 10 acres of greenhouses in Massachusetts, Little Leaf Farms produces more than 2 million boxes of lettuce each month. Last fall, it extended delivery and sales into New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

“We believe in the company’s environmentally and socially responsible mission as they expand into new markets on the East Coast,” Randy Mitchell, a senior vice president of global commercial banking at Bank of America, said in the release.