Bowery Raises $50M More For Indoor, Pesticide-Free Farms
Summary
Indoor farming startup Bowery announced today it has raised an additional $50M in an extension of its Series B round. The startup, which aims to grow “organic, sustainably grown produce,” also announced today its new indoor farm in the Baltimore-DC area. Its network of farms “essentially communicate using Bowery’s software.” according to the company, and benefits from the collective intelligence of 2+ years of data.” Bowery’s proprietary software system, BoweryOS, uses vision systems, automation technology, and machine learning to continuously monitor plants and all the variables that drive their growth. “Because we control the entire process from seed to store, Bowery farms use zero pesticides, 95 percent less water, and are 100+ times more productive on the same footprint of land than traditional agriculture,” the company claims. Previously, Crunchbase News writer Joanna Glasner reported that funding for venture-backed U.S. agricultural companies spiked in the first half of 2017, with investors seeking to fund companies applying robotics, data, genetic engineering, and other technology to farming practices.