US-based vertical farming technology developer Bowery Farming raised $300m in series C funding yesterday from investors including GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet.
Investment and financial services group Fidelity Management & Research led the round, which included Amplo, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Groupe Artémis, Gaingels, Temasek and private investors José Andrés, Lewis Hamilton, Chris Paul, Natalie Portman and Justin Timberlake.
Bowery is developing a sustainable indoor farming scheme designed for cities. It has built a system dubbed BoweryOS that integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision-equipped software, hardware and sensors, reducing the water and land usage involved for growing greens.
The round valued Bowery at $2.3bn and brought its overall funding to $472m. Temasek led its $50m series B-plus round in November 2019, investing alongside Henry Kravis, after the company had secured $90m in a 2018 series B round led by GV and backed by Temasek, General Catalyst, First Round Capital, Almanac Ventures and GGV Capital.
GV had already participated in a $20m series A round for Bowery in 2017 co-led by General Catalyst and GGV Capital, which came in the wake of a $7.5m seed round led by First Round that also featured Lerer Hippeau, BoxGroup and Tom Colicchio.
Andy Wheeler, the GV general partner that sits on Bowery’s board of directors, said: “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.
“I look forward to continuing to partner with the Bowery team as they build and scale the largest indoor farming network in the United States and bring more sustainable produce to consumers.”
