On the "Farm of the Future", Strawberries and a $50 Million Investment
Last week, Oishii Farm (a vertical farm based in Kearny, NJ) raised $50 million in a Series A funding round and CEO Hiroki Koga said:
“We aim to be the largest strawberry producer in the world, and this capital allows us to bring the best-tasting, healthiest berry to everyone. From there, we'll quickly expand into new fruits and produce.
"Our mission is to change the way we grow food. We set out to deliver exceptionally delicious and sustainable produce. We started with the strawberry - a fruit that routinely tops the dirty dozen of most pesticide-riddled crops - as it has long been considered the 'holy grail' of vertical farming."
Note: Oishii Farm investors include Sony Innovation Fund and Spark Group (funded by Toyota, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and others.
Spark, the lead investor in the funding, said Oishii Farm:
“Intends to build the world’s largest vertical strawberry farm in New York, and to start developing its next-generation 'Farm of the Future'.
“Uses proprietary cultivation and pollination techniques developed based on Japanese agricultural practices ... [and] has successfully mass-produced high-quality strawberries for the first time worldwide.
“Is taking on the world by packing all of Japan’s agricultural and manufacturing technologies into the form of vertical farming. The world’s most advanced automatic climate management system, which the company developed in-house, enables more efficient experimentation.
“Aims to promote automation by integrating industrial technology while realizing an eco-friendly business model that gradually expands beyond New York and the US’s borders."
OUR TAKE
As Oishii Farm grows high-end varieties of strawberries (eight strawberries for $50), delivering lower-priced products will require operational improvements.
Environmental concerns are increasing the interest in and funding for indoor/vertical farming (e.g., AeroFarms, Bowery Farms, Infarm and Plenty) – driven by the potential for 1) consistent year-round production, 2) less environmental risk, and 3) repurposing abandoned and/or underutilized properties.
Because technology is a significant component of vertical farming (managing light, ventilation, CO2, water, automation, etc.), technologists/ data scientists need a good understanding of agricultural dynamics.
Advances in agricultural science (plant/cell-based meats, genomics/CRISPR, etc.) and food production technologies (automation, computer vision, indoor/vertical production, etc.) should help increase the availability of affordable and sustainable food offerings.