The tech-investment firm SoftBank Vision Fund says it will spend $200 million to help the indoor farming startup Plenty expand around the globe. Currently the company has two farms, one in San Francisco and another in Laramie, Wyoming, but it wants to scale up, tapping into population centers around the world.
“Chief executive Matt Barnard calls the veggies ‘super organics,’ or beyond organic, because there are no pesticides or chemicals of any kind used in the cultivation of Plenty’s crops,” which could conceivably include everything except tree fruit and root vegetables, says TechCrunch.
Plenty’s first harvest will be on supermarket shelves and available online in San Francisco by next year, but the firm will face stiff competition from others in the indoor-farming sector, including Aerofarms, BrightFarms, Bowery Farming and Freight Farm.