Uber CEO and Alphabet Invest in Urban Farming Startup

Bowery Farming Inc., a two-year-old startup that uses robotics to cultivate crops indoors, is on track for more growth. The New York-based company plans to announce on Wednesday that it raised $90 million from investors including Alphabet Inc.’s GV and Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi, said Bowery’s co-founder and CEO, Irving Fain. The company declined to provide its valuation.

Bowery is part of a new crop of agriculture technology startups growing leafy greens in controlled environments near cities. Last year, Plenty, a San Francisco-based vertical farming company, raised $200 million from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund. Bowery grows its veggies in layers of sensor-rich trays that move and react to humidity, carbon dioxide and light. One square foot of Bowery’s indoor farm is 100 times more productive than an equivalent plot of arable land, Bowery says. Plenty makes similar claims.