Vertical farming: Plenty receives $200 million investment from tech giants - TomoNews

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco startup Plenty specialized in vertical farming has secured $200 million from investors including Japanese media corporation SoftBank, the parent company of Google, Alphabet and Amazon. Plenty grows their plants vertically on the sides of a tall tower. Lights are also arranged vertically to give the plants maximum amount of exposure. The vertical farm can grow up to 350 times more produce than conventional farm in the same amount of space, using less water too, Fast Company reported. According to the BBC, the firm is planning on building indoor vertical farms with the size up to five acres, which is roughly the size of big supermarkets like Walmart. The facilities will be built next to large cities in order to reduce the amount of delivery time. “We believe that Plenty's team will remake the current food system to improve people's quality of life,” Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Softbank Group said in a statement. Plenty was founded in 2013. It now has 100 employees in San Francisco and Wyoming. The firm plans to supply its vertically grown food to market this fall. The firm is not the first nor the only firm specializing in vertical farming. Other firms such as Aerofarms, Bowery and Betterlife Growers are all promoting this innovative farming technology.