The future of agriculture drawn by Plenty.

In this entry, I will introduce Plenty Inc.

Plenty is one of the companies which SoftBank Vision Fund invests. Since this is the first post which has some meaning, I had planned to write about the companies like Uber or DiDi, which are more famous. But Plenty is the most impressed company for me among Son-san’s presentation, so I picked it up as a first entry.

Here is the overview.

*Company Name:Plenty Inc.

*Foundation:2014.

*Location:San Francisco, CA.

*Feature:Indoor Farming using the method called Vertical Faming and AI technology.

*Website:

*The year SoftBank invested:2017, Eric Schmidt and Jeff Bezos also intested at the same series.

*Aerofarms, Sky Greens and Illumitex are listed as a competitor. Especially, Aerofarms is the largest company in Vertical Farming field.

For me, the problem Plenty tries to solve seems clear.

1) How efficiently they can cultivate.

2) To how many people they can deliver the crops with better quality.

I think they commits to the points above.

And once they overcome such problems, Plenty plans to be a platform to realize the future that people around the world enjoys the crops cultivated in their region with lower price. I assume such vision of future and they try to achieve it by using IT, including AI, drew Son-san’s attention.

Regarding the first problem, 1) How efficiently they can cultivate, there is a big and inevitable proposition for human, how we feed the approx. 7.4 billion population with limited farmland. Plenty’s feature is cultivating based on the method called “Vertical Farming”. Also, they keep monitoring/managing the growth of plants and conditions of indoor by using AI and big data. By doing so, they realize the amazingly high productivity, which is 40 times better than the normal farming.

The Vertical Farming which Plenty adopts doesn’t need soil or pesticides, which is necessary for normal farming. They use the tower which has 6m height inside building as a cultivate space. And the solution which has nutrient contents is flowed to the tower for the growth of crops. Furturemore, LED light is used instead of sun light.

Such technologies allowed them to cultivate with high productivity. For example, as Son-san told us at SoftBank Career Live 2019, although full-size football stadium space was necessary in the past, now the same amount of vegetables can be obtained by the goal net in one side only.

And as for the second point, 2) To how many people they can deliver the crops with better quality. They can now secure the farmland close to the big city, which had been difficult due to the space problem, thanks to the technologies above. In the past, the farmer has to take into consideration of long time/distance transportation and cultivate the crop varieties which can resist such stress. Of course, it needs certain costs and freshness is worse than the ones cultivated close place.

Such problems will be solved by the Plenty’s technologies since farmers can now cultivate close to the place which their plants are consumed, which leads to lower price and better freshness.

Plenty mentioned about the future of agriculture as below.

***Quote***

Just as people have moved indoors to create the most optimal living conditions, we now have the technology to move farming indoors, providing the most habitable environment for produce ever. And when the food we put into our bodies is at peak condition, they nourish us to our peak condition. The technology we have right now could change the future of one of the world’s oldest industries. Plenty is developing the revolutionary systems with which to reach beyond the constraints of the past and feed all 7.4 billion people on this planet more robustly than ever before. The future of farming is already here—we simply have to grow it.

***Quote ends***

I assume we may enjoy the future like below.

*Branded vegetables available in your house.

Plenty asks the famous farmer to set the sensors/monitors and accumulate the data for the best conditions for each vegetable. Then, Plenty establishes the way to reproduce its condition and sell it as a package to consumers. People can have the vegetable with the same quality as it’s cultivated in the real farm.

*Sustainable office by WeWork ~Working with green~

Developing Plenty’s technology and making it possible to cultivate even in office. We may expect better productivity working surrounded by green or we may have the vegetable grown in the same office at lunch ;)

*Factory tour for children.

Prepare a tour for children to have a flexible vision for future. We may assign Pepper as a tour guide and enjoy future life.

I just listed some ideas up here but Son-san may have wider/better vision for Plenty. For me, the future drawn by Plenty is very attractive. They are challenging the inevitable theme for mankind and not only to solve its problem but also to do something more. I’m personally a big fan of Plenty and keep my eyes on their activity.

Thank you for reading!

I referred to Plenty’s official website and their blog for writing this blog, thanks!

#Plenty #SoftBank #AI #Verticalfarming #agriculture