Plenty

Plenty Unlimited sells greens and herbs to nearby restaurants and grocery stores in the Bay area as well as online.Plenty operates an hydroponic farming system. The company’s primary goal is to become a global company that provides fresh produce that can reach stores within hours after harvest, at the price of conventional products. The company's own proprietary software has helped it achieve the second highest per unit production among leading disruptors—40 lbs per sq ft. 

In June 2017, the company acquired indoor farming equipment company Bright Agrotech, which was founded by one of Plenty’s founders and its chief science officer, Nate Storey, in order to obtain the technical knowledge to expand faster. 

As of January 2022, Plenty operated one commercial farm in South San Francisco and one small R&D farm in Laramie, Wyoming. According to reports, the company was expected to open the world’s highest-output vertical farm in Compton in 2022. Plenty also planned to develop vertical farms outside every major city around the world (i.e. 500 cities that have a population of 1 million+ people).

In January 2023, the company announced the closure of its south San Francisco facility, relocating all manufacturing to its Compton, California facility which was opened in May 2023. The facility has the capability to grow up to 4.5 million lbs of leafy greens annually in a single city block and incorporates Plenty's patent assets, including its 3D vertical architecture, which enables a yield up to 350x greater than that of a traditional farm per acre making this farm claiming to be the world's most technologically advanced indoor vertical farm.

Key customers and partnerships

In January 2022, Walmart partnered with Plenty as part of its investment in the latter’s Series E funding round. According to the partnership, Plenty agreed to supply its vertically farmed produce to 250 Walmart stores in California. Additionally, Walmart’s new product category for vertically farmed produce was to be developed by Plenty. In August 2023, Plenty made its leafy greens available at all Whole Foods Market stores and Gelson's Markets throughout California.

In September 2022, the company secured 120 acres of land to build the world’s largest indoor vertical farm campus in Richmond, Virginia, expanding beyond the West Coast. The first farm in the campus will grow strawberries for Driscoll’s and is expected to serve retailers by 2023-2024. Plenty partnered with Realty Income Corporation, a real estate investment trust, in February 2023 to fund the development of Plenty's indoor vertical farms, worth up to USD 1 billion, beginning with Plenty's indoor vertical farm campus in Richmond, Virginia. In July 2024, The company has partnered with Mawarid, a subsidiary of Alpha Dhabi Holding, to set up five farming facilities in the Middle East within the next five years, with USD 680 million in venture capital funding facilitated by a local bank. In August 2024, the company partnered with Texas-based convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, to expand their customer base for indoor grown vertically farmed fresh produce across California.

Funding and financials

Marking the largest funding round in the indoor farming space, In January 2022, Plenty raised USD 400 million in a Series E funding round led by One Madison Group and JS Capital. The funds were raised to support its change in business model and growth plans. In March 2022, Plenty announced plans to build a vertical farm dedicated for growing strawberries in partnership with Driscoll’s, a leading supplier of berries. Plenty had already grown strawberries vertically at its R&D center in Wyoming and previously announced its intentions to produce strawberries following the company’s Series D funding round. The new facility is expected to begin operations in early 2023 with plans to sell its strawberries by early 2024. 

In January 2023, the company received a  USD 20 million grant from the Wyoming Business Council to the City of Laramie, to establish a vertical farming research center in Laramie, Wyoming.