Founder: Irving Fain (CEO), David Golden, Brian Falther
Launched:Â 2015
Headquarters:Â New York City
Funding: $647 million
Valuation: $2.3 billion
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics
Industry: Agriculture
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0
The need to grow produce more efficiently, and closer to end markets, is represented in Bowery and the concept of vertical agriculture.
In a convergence of farming and technology, indoor farms rely on LED lighting, robotics, machine learning and data-collecting sensors to produce a variety of produce in a more sustainable way than conventional agriculture. These climate-controlled farms, which don't require soil or sunlight, use no pesticides and 95% less water. Planted anywhere and often nearby cities, such growing facilities can supply nearby local grocery stores and restaurants with convenient, year-round fresh produce, and shorten deliveries. Â
Founded in 2015 in New York City, Bowery is among several urban plant factories that are changing food supplies, and attracting substantial funding.
Last May, Bowery opened an advanced agri-business farm in south Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on land where steel used to be manufactured, and hired dozens of workers. Â This "Farm of the Future," powered with renewable energy, is expected to save approximately 20 million gallons of water annually compared with traditional agriculture, according to founder and CEO Irving Fain, a former tech entrepreneur and investment banker. Â
Early last year, Bowery secured a $150 million credit investment from KKR & Co. In 2021, the agtech startup raised $325 million in Series CÂ funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with prior investors GGV Capital, General Catalyst, GV, and Singapore fund Temasek. First Round Capital led its $7.5 million seed funding in 2017.
But prior venture capital isn't necessarily enough. Vertical farming is a money-hungry, tech-intensive business and scaling up profitably remains challenging, especially in a much tighter VC market hemmed in by high interest rates. Pittsburgh-based, venture-funded Fifth Season, for instance, shut down its vertical farm last November. German company InFarm laid off hundreds of workers. AppHarvest, which went public in a SPAC during the pandemic market boom, has lost 95% of its value and is trading for under $1.
Bowery faces competition from several, well-funded regional startups in sustainable agriculture, too, among them Walmart-backed Plenty in San Francisco, which recently entered a $1 billion land deal with commercial REIT Realty Income; Brooklyn-based Gotham Greens, which received over $300 million in a late 2022 funding round and has plans with Kroger to expand to as many as 1,000 stores by year-end from 300 currently; and 80 Acres in Cincinnati.
Continuing to scale up, Bowery doubled production in 2022 and is on track to double again this year from three mid-Atlantic commercial farms plus two research and development operations. In a product expansion of its line of packaged vegetables and herbs, fresh strawberry packs and ready-to-eat salad kits were added. Distribution was expanded to more than 150 grocery stores through a partnership with supermarket cooperative group Wakefern Food in New Jersey. Overall, Bowery increased its retail distribution 40% in 2022, with supermarket chains Albertsons, Giant Food, Walmart and Whole Foods on board.
Almost a decade on from its founding, the idea behind Bowery remains novel, but skeptics say vertical farming remains closer to a DIY niche than a grown up, globally scalable agtech industry.
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