Onward and Upward for Vertical Farming

BOWERY FARMING, a high-tech vertical farming company that grows greens indoors, has raised $300 million in funding at a valuation of $2.3 billion, it will announce today (May 25th). The round was led by Fidelity.

Not your typical farmer.

Irving Fain, Bowery’s founder and C.E.O., began his career in investment banking, directed digital marketing at iHeartMedia and founded CrowdTwist, a brand analytics software company. He started the “smart” farm company, which uses technology to control and monitor growth, in 2014. The company’s farms are built near cities and employ workers with no agricultural experience to work tech-enabled greenhouses.

“When you look at climate change, population growth, and urbanization, it’s clear that our agricultural system needs to change,” Fain told DealBook. Small-scale vertical farms in urban areas can’t feed everyone, but they are “simpler, safer, more reliable and more sustainable,” he said.

Stars are betting on it. Bowery’s latest funding round boasts celebrity investors like the actress Natalie Portman, the chef José André s and the singer-songwriter and actor Justin Timberlake. Its greens and herbs are sold in more than 850 stores, and it has recorded sales growth of some 750% since the start of 2020. www.nytimes.com/newsletters

Image credit: Fast Company, refrigeratedfrozenfood. com