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Hippo Harvest Closes $30M Series C Funding Round Led by Cox Farms to Scale Robotic Indoor Growing Tech and Expand to New Markets
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Hippo Harvest, a California-based indoor agriculture company, has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Cox Farms, a greenhouse operation giant owned by Cox Enterprises. The round, announced on March 11, 2025, will accelerate the company's robotic greenhouse technology and commercialization of indoor-grown spinach. This funding marks a significant milestone for the vertical farming sector, which has faced challenges in achieving cost parity with traditional farming.
The company, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Pescadero, Calif., operates a greenhouse system that uses autonomous mobile robots and machine learning to monitor, tend, and harvest USDA-certified organic leafy greens. Its current facility spans one acre and supplies retailers including Sprouts, Haggen, and Gus's Community Markets. The Series C round also includes backing from existing investors Congruent Ventures, Hawthorne Food Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and Fresh Investment Club.
The $30 million investment will support a planned 30-acre expansion at a new facility in Hollister, Calif., currently in the permitting phase. Additionally, funds will be used to develop Hippo Harvest's next-generation robotic growing system, which employs robotic tractors to automatically respace growing modules for optimal efficiency. This upgrade aims to increase yields, lower costs, and enable year-round production of greens like spinach and butter lettuce, which launched commercially in early 2026.
By scaling to 30 acres, Hippo Harvest expects to significantly increase its growing capacity and reduce per-unit costs, making indoor-grown organic greens more competitive with field-grown alternatives. The company's focus on spinach, a high-demand crop typically difficult to grow indoors, could disrupt traditional supply chains reliant on imports from warmer regions. Retailers gain a reliable, year-round source of locally grown produce, reducing transportation emissions and spoilage.
"Closing this round and bringing spinach to market in the same moment is a real signal of where Hippo Harvest is headed," said CEO Eitan Marder-Eppstein. Cox Farms President Steve Bradley added, "Hippo Harvest is doing something genuinely exciting in indoor agriculture... We can't wait to watch them scale." The company emphasizes that its system consistently produces certified organic greens at prices acceptable to both retailers and consumers.
Looking ahead, Hippo Harvest plans to expand across the West Coast and pursue additional national retail partnerships. The company also aims to introduce more green varieties, building on its spinach and butter lettuce base. This round follows a $21 million Series B in February 2024 led by Standard Investments, reflecting growing investor confidence in AI-driven agriculture solutions that address food security and sustainability challenges.
