Matt Barnard, CEO of the indoor vertical farming company Plenty, analyzed the agricultural supply chain in the United States and determined it had a four-pronged problem that people would pay to have solved: flavor, waste, environmental footprint, and nutrition. So, in 2014, Barnard and his cofounders incorporated the business that is now Plenty: a technology company that aimed to reshape the inefficient, but entrenched, agriculture sector and build a global brand by selling fresher, tastier, and more nutritious produce. By early 2020, Plenty had 300+ employees and had attracted hundreds of millions in investment from the likes of Bezos Expeditions, Innovation Endeavors, and SoftBank Vision Fund and had a valuation of $1.05 billion. This case details Plenty's journey from an idea to a path-breaking company that is disrupting the field of agriculture and valued at over a billion dollars.
