Standard Investments Leads $21 Million Round in Hippo Harvest

SAN FRANCISCO &&num;8212&semi; Hippo Harvest, a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) startup developing advanced greenhouse systems that produce sustainably-grown produce, has closed a &dollar;21 million Series B funding round led by Standard Investments&period; Congruent Ventures, Amazon&&num;8217&semi;s Climate Pledge Fund, Hawthorne Food Ventures, and Energy Impact Partners also participated in the round&period; The funding will be used to scale the company&&num;8217&semi;s greenhouse operations and to expand its product offerings into new categories of leafy greens&period;&NewLine;Founded in 2019, Hippo Harvest operates a first-of-its-kind repurposed greenhouse facility in Pescadero, CA that out-competes traditional greenhouses in scalability and unit economics and is comparable to traditional outdoor-grown produce prices&period; The company utilizes a closed-loop, non-recirculating, direct-to-root fertilizer system, machine learning and autonomous mobile robots to calculate and efficiently distribute water, fertilizer, light, and heating on a micro-climate basis throughout its greenhouses&period; The result is significantly more cost and resource efficient production of fresh produce&period; Consumers and retailers enjoy the superior quality, consistency, and food safety of Hippo greens at competitive prices&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re excited by the opportunity to scale our production and reach more consumers with high-quality, sustainable produce,&&num;8221&semi; said Hippo Harvest CEO Eitan Marder-Eppstein&period; &&num;8220&semi;Our team&&num;8217&semi;s work over the past twelve months demonstrates our ability to create modular, cost-effective growing systems that can be deployed across the country&period; We look forward to working with our investors to make it a reality&period;&&num;8221&semi;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Since inception, Hippo has delivered superior produce while maintaining cost efficiencies&period; Standard invests in companies disrupting traditional industry and we are thrilled to partner with Hippo on its journey to scale,&&num;8221&semi; said Logan Ashcraft, Principal at Standard Investments, who joins Hippo&&num;8217&semi;s Board of Directors&period;&NewLine;The company&&num;8217&semi;s farming methods increase food safety and extend shelf life by up to 30&percnt; compared to outdoor-grown produce, due to a number of unique factors&period; Plants are irrigated with purified water and a uniquely customized nutrient blend from below, rather than above, reducing the risk of pathogen and fungus formation caused by water and nutrients touching the leaves&period; Off-the-shelf robots with customized attachments are used to tend to and harvest the plants, delivering precise levels of water and nutrition for healthier plants&period; All production is done in a clean, controlled greenhouse, reducing damage and quality variations that occur in conventional outdoor farming&period; Products are packed on-site, immediately after harvesting, using 100&percnt; post-consumer recycled plastic&period; Instead of conventional chemical pesticides, the company uses beneficial insects, natural oils, and other pesticide free practices&period;&NewLine;Hippo Harvest&&num;8217&semi;s approach to growing produce in greenhouses addresses a critical need to reduce climate change related volatility in the fresh-food supply chain&period; It also offers ecological benefits like significantly reducing water and fertilizer use, even in low-water environments or areas with limited agricultural space, and reduces methane-producing agricultural waste that is caused by traditional farming, without sacrificing accessibility and affordability at commercial scale&period; These characteristics increase the availability of locally grown, fresh food and provide communities with more accessible water, a cleaner environment, and safer, more stable agricultural jobs, without sacrificing accessibility and affordability at commercial scale&period;&NewLine;

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