Bezos-Backed Farm Startup in Talks for More Than 90% Value Cut
(Bloomberg) — Plenty Unlimited Inc., the vertical farming pioneer backed by billionaires including Jeff Bezos, is in talks for a new round of financing that would effectively wipe out existing shareholders, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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Plenty, which has raised nearly $1 billion from investors such as Eric Schmidt and SoftBank Group Corp., is in talks to raise another $125 million as part of a recapitalization, according to people familiar with the matter shares at less than $15 million, one person said.Earlier, investors had valued Plenty at $1.9 billion, according to PitchBook.
The company declined to comment on the deal.
Plenty has installed an interim CEO in recent weeks following the exit of Arama Kukutayi, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The new interim CEO is Daniel Malek, who was previously the company’s senior vice president of strategy and general counsel.
At the same time, the company is undergoing a broader shift in strategy.Instead of growing a variety of fruits and vegetables, Plenty will focus on strawberries, which are more profitable.
Cucutay and Malech did not respond to requests for comment.
New York investment firm One Madison Group is expected to lead the new financing.SoftBank’s Vision Fund, a longtime Plenty investor that has invested more than $400 million in the company, is also in talks to participate, the people said, as well as Walmart Inc- Funding is not yet complete and may still fall apart, they added.
SoftBank and Walmart declined to comment.One Madison Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Plenty’s changing strategy reflects larger struggles for the once-promising indoor farming industry.The news comes months after Bowery Farming, once valued at $2.3 billion, ceased operations, according to reports. Before that, companies including AeroFarms, Kalera and AppHarvest all filed for bankruptcy.
Plenty has been a leader in the indoor farming world, which aims to use less land and water to grow food while avoiding the effects of extreme weather. such as Driscoll’s Inc.
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