Magical Trade
Thursday, August 11, 2022
  • Home
  • Trade News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Trade News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
No Result
View All Result
Magical Trade
No Result
View All Result
Home Trade News

Walmart makes an investment in vertical farming start-up Plenty

by
January 25, 2022
in Trade News
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RELATED POSTS

Mocked by Everyone, Stock Rally Sits at Cusp of a Chart Landmark

Sanofi and GSK Lead $40 Billion Rout as Zantac Worries Mount

In this article

WMT

Plenty uses vertical farming to grow a high volume of leafy greens year-round. It plans to use the technology to grow other crops, including strawberries and tomatoes.
Photo: Spencer Lowell for Plenty

Walmart said Tuesday that it is investing in vertical farming company Plenty and plans to carry the start-up’s leafy greens in all California stores later this year.

The big-box retail giant did not disclose the size of the equity stake or the terms of the commercial deal, but said a Walmart executive will join Plenty’s board. Walmart’s investment is part of a $400 million round of funding for Plenty led by One Madison Group and JS Capital, with participation from SoftBank Vision Fund.

With the move, the country’s largest grocer is diving into a trendy area of food tech that brings farm produce closer to customers’ kitchen tables to boost freshness, limit waste and promote sustainability.

Food and agriculture start-ups have become a hot area for venture capital during the pandemic, particularly as consumers eat at home more often and retailers face supply chain challenges. Indoor agriculture also has become a potential solution to unpredictable weather patterns and natural disasters, such as California wildfires, fueled by climate change.

Walmart traveled the world, met with vertical farming companies and learned about the newer mode of agriculture for the past four years, said Martin Mundo, senior vice president of produce merchandising in the U.S. Walmart sees the approach as an environmentally friendly way to ensure a reliable supply of high-quality and affordable produce year-round, he said.

Vertical farming comes with several key benefits compared with traditional farms, according to a report by Morgan Stanley Research on the future of food. Crops can grow faster and with a larger yield because they rely on synthetic light sources instead of sunlight and aren’t subject to sudden changes of weather. The crops also can be grown without pesticides, which eliminates runoff that can damage wildlife and soil quality. And consumers typically see longer shelf life for their purchases because crops don’t spend long hours on the back of a truck or endure temperature changes from transportation.

Plenty’s lettuce varieties, which include kale, arugula and spring mix among others, are grown without pesticides. The brand is sold by some Albertsons stores and Amazon-owned Whole Foods outlets and delivered by grocery companies Instacart and Good Eggs. To date, Plenty has raised more than $900 million, including the latest investment.

Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai said the Walmart deal is a step toward making fresh, clean produce more accessible and affordable.

“It creates the opportunity to actually get to scale, not just being a niche provider of expensive greens, as the category has somewhat been accused of in the past,” he said. “This isn’t just about high-quality, organic leafy greens. This is about getting to consumers on a more democratic and broad basis.”

San Francisco-based Plenty is one of several start-ups involved with vertical farming. Its competitors include Bowery Farming, AeroFarms, PlantLab and BrightFarms.

So far, lettuce and herbs have been the primary crops grown indoors — but the companies are chasing ways to grow more high-value produce.

Starting later this year, Walmart’s 250 stores in California will have leafy greens grown in a vertical farm in the city of Compton in southern Los Angeles. Some greens will be sold under Plenty’s brands and others will be sold under Walmart’s private label.

All of Plenty’s farms are in California so far, but the company plans to expand to the East Coast soon and start growing other kinds of crops, Kukutai said. He said Plenty expects to sell strawberries and tomatoes to customers next year.

Kukutai took the reins as CEO at Plenty this month, after investing in the company through his food and agriculture tech fund, Finistere Ventures. Other earlier investors include, among others: Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Jeff Bezos’ eponymous fund Bezos Expeditions and Driscoll’s, a major grower of fresh berries. The California-based company also has a deal with Plenty to grow its strawberries indoors.

–CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

ShareTweetPin

Related Posts

Mocked by Everyone, Stock Rally Sits at Cusp of a Chart Landmark

by
August 11, 2022
0

',panelEmptyTemplate=' {emptyPanelMsg} ',panelErrorTemplate=' {errorMsg} ',panelParentTemplate='',notifOnboardPromoTemplate='',EXPANDED_PANEL="expanded_panel",ERROR_PANEL="error_panel",NotificationView=function(){function e(n,t){classCallCheck(this,e);var i=this;i._config=n,i._panelNode=null,i._store=t}return createClass(e,[{key:"_generatePanelMarkup",value:function(e,n){var t=this._config,i=void 0,o=void 0;"undefined"!=typeof window&&(i=window.Notification&&"default"===window.Notification.permission,o=t.promos.bypassEligibleClassCheck||hasClass(document.body,t.promos.eligibleBodyClass));var r=t.promos.enableNotifOnboard&&i&&o?notifOnboardPromoTemplate:"";if(r){var s=t.promos.showYahooLogo?"":"yns-no-logo";r=r.replace("{notifOnboardBtnLabel}",t.promos.notifOnboardBtnLabel).replace("{notifOnboardMsg}",t.promos.notifOnboardMsg).replace("{subscriptionTopic}",t.promos.subscriptionTopic).replace("{noLogoClass}",s).replace("{promoLogo}",t.promos.promoLogo)}var a=n.newCount>t.panel.maxCount?n.newCount:"",c=t.panel.notificationCenterPath,l=c?"":constants.panelHideElement,d=t.panel.headerMsg?"":" "+constants.panelHideElement,u=c?constants.panelPaddingBtm:"",p=void 0;n.count?p=n.markup:p=panelEmptyTemplate.replace("{emptyPanelMsg}",t.panel.emptyPanelMsg);return e=e.replace("{notifMarkup}",p).replace("{promoMarkup}",r).replace("{hideClass}",l).replace("{notifCenterLink}",c).replace("{paddingClass}",u).replace("{headerMsg}",t.panel.headerMsg).replace("{hideHeaderClass}",d).replace(/{notificationCenterNavMsg}/g,t.panel.notificationCenterNavMsg).replace(/{newCount}/g,a)}},{key:"render",value:function(e,n){var t=this;if(t._panelNode){var i=void...

Sanofi and GSK Lead $40 Billion Rout as Zantac Worries Mount

by
August 11, 2022
0

',panelEmptyTemplate=' {emptyPanelMsg} ',panelErrorTemplate=' {errorMsg} ',panelParentTemplate='',notifOnboardPromoTemplate='',EXPANDED_PANEL="expanded_panel",ERROR_PANEL="error_panel",NotificationView=function(){function e(n,t){classCallCheck(this,e);var i=this;i._config=n,i._panelNode=null,i._store=t}return createClass(e,[{key:"_generatePanelMarkup",value:function(e,n){var t=this._config,i=void 0,o=void 0;"undefined"!=typeof window&&(i=window.Notification&&"default"===window.Notification.permission,o=t.promos.bypassEligibleClassCheck||hasClass(document.body,t.promos.eligibleBodyClass));var r=t.promos.enableNotifOnboard&&i&&o?notifOnboardPromoTemplate:"";if(r){var s=t.promos.showYahooLogo?"":"yns-no-logo";r=r.replace("{notifOnboardBtnLabel}",t.promos.notifOnboardBtnLabel).replace("{notifOnboardMsg}",t.promos.notifOnboardMsg).replace("{subscriptionTopic}",t.promos.subscriptionTopic).replace("{noLogoClass}",s).replace("{promoLogo}",t.promos.promoLogo)}var a=n.newCount>t.panel.maxCount?n.newCount:"",c=t.panel.notificationCenterPath,l=c?"":constants.panelHideElement,d=t.panel.headerMsg?"":" "+constants.panelHideElement,u=c?constants.panelPaddingBtm:"",p=void 0;n.count?p=n.markup:p=panelEmptyTemplate.replace("{emptyPanelMsg}",t.panel.emptyPanelMsg);return e=e.replace("{notifMarkup}",p).replace("{promoMarkup}",r).replace("{hideClass}",l).replace("{notifCenterLink}",c).replace("{paddingClass}",u).replace("{headerMsg}",t.panel.headerMsg).replace("{hideHeaderClass}",d).replace(/{notificationCenterNavMsg}/g,t.panel.notificationCenterNavMsg).replace(/{newCount}/g,a)}},{key:"render",value:function(e,n){var t=this;if(t._panelNode){var i=void...

Switch from gas boosts oil demand, but economic headwinds loom — IEA

by
August 11, 2022
0

Speaking to CNBC on Monday, the executive director of the International Energy Agency spoke about the intricacies of the energy...

Thai central bank governor says there’s no need to ‘undertake heroically large rate hikes’

by
August 11, 2022
0

The Bank of Thailand's move to hike interest rates by 25 basis point to 0.75% was a "gradual and measured...

This CEO developed what’s been dubbed Asia’s Tesla of scooters. Here are his top tips

by
August 11, 2022
0

Horace Luke isn't a fan of the word "no." "If I ask the first time I can do something...

Next Post

Surprised by Monday’s market recovery? Whenever the Dow and the S&P 500 fall below this key support level, stocks typically come roaring back

Three Market Gurus Tell You Exactly When Stocks Will Stop Falling

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

email

Get the daily email about stock.

Please Enter Your Email Address:



By opting in you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!

MOST VIEWED

  • Forget Tesla — this auto stock is the one to buy right now, analyst says

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fund manager believes FAANG is dead — says now it’s all about MANTA

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Bank of America names its top global tech stocks — including one it says has upside of 100%

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Conviction sell’: UBS says avoid these global stocks amid rising headwinds

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Goldman Sachs "Will Higher Rates Put Out the Housing Fire?"

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Home
  • Trade News
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Privacy Policy
All rights reserved by www.magicaltrade.net
No Result
View All Result
  • Email Whitelisting
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy

All rights reserved by www.magicaltrade.net