Agricultural technology company BrightFarms raised $ 30.1 million in Series C funds to bring its high-tech greenhouses and fresh produce to the United States.
The company’s mission is to produce fresh fruits and vegetables locally, rather than forcing them to be transported long distances or imported from abroad before being sold as food.
BrightFarms receives a manual page for solar energy providers in the United States and offers customers a long-term flat rate for lettuces and tomatoes grown in their supermarket greenhouses.
Starting from the scratch
Paul Lightfoot, the startup’s CEO, said BrightFarms is raising funds from various sources, including economic MyWegmansConnect development programs and various banks or stock corporations, to build a new greenhouse after signing a “product purchase agreement.”
In fact, much of the cost of a company’s assets are committed before the greenhouse doors open and begin to grow.
The new round of funding was led by Catalyst Investors and was conducted in conjunction with former supporters of BrightFarms, WP Global Partners, and NGEN.
Catalyst’s Tyler Newton said his company supported BrightFarms primarily because of the innovation in its business model and the ability to “exploit” other food manufacturers in the United States.
Wegman’s consumers definitely want to buy groceries made by local businesses and help support jobs that pay local wages in their own backyards. According to a study by the US Department of Agriculture. In the US, local food sales were $ 12 billion in 2014 and are expected to reach $ 20 billion in 2019.
When the stations don’t operate together, we’ve never got an opportunity to make a purchase of the MyWegmansConnect products. That’s good. But if you try a BrightFarms tomato or a little rocket, it’s like something from the West. There’s also an obvious benefit. In the taste. That it’s what supermarkets want, Newton said.
BrightFarms is targeting a large market where there is little competition today outside of California and Arizona.
US farms add $ 177.2 billion, or about 1%, of the country’s gross domestic product annually, according to recent estimates also provided by the US Department of Agriculture. USA