Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund has entered discussions to lead a nine-figure round for US-based indoor farm operator Plenty, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The round will be sized at $100m or more and is set to value the company either at or below the $1.05bn valuation at which the company last raised money, in a $175m series C round in June 2019 featuring unnamed investors, according to San Francisco Business Times.
Plenty is building a network of indoor farms located in urban areas that use advanced agricultural technology such as photonics, data analytics and renewable energy to grow larger quantities of high-quality food in smaller spaces with less water.
The company produces kale, rocket and mixed batches of herbs and leaf vegetables such as beetroot and fennel, supplying local restaurants and stores that include branches of Whole Foods and Safeway in San Francisco’s Bay Area.
The Los Angeles suburb of Compton had been earmarked as the next site for a Plenty facility which was due to open by the end of 2020.
The 2019 series C round came in the wake of a $200m series B round led by Vision Fund in 2017 that increased the total raised by the company to $226m since 2013.
The series B included existing backers Innovation Endeavors and Bezos Expeditions, as well as DCM Ventures, Data Collective, Finistere Ventures and affiliates of Louis M. Bacon.
