Insider Brief
- Hippo Harvest raised $30 million in Series C funding to expand its robotics-driven greenhouse operations and speed commercialization of indoor-grown spinach.
- The round was led by Cox Farms and will support a planned 30-acre expansion at a new Hollister, Calif., facility, as well as development of Hippo Harvest’s next-generation robotic growing system.
- Hippo Harvest said its system uses autonomous mobile robots and machine learning to monitor, tend and harvest USDA-certified organic greens, with retail customers including Sprouts, Haggen and Gus’s Community Markets.
Hippo Harvest announced it has raised $30 million to expand its robotics-driven greenhouse operations and speed the rollout of indoor-grown spinach.
According to the Pescadero, Calif., company, the Series C round was led by greenhouse operation giant Cox Farms. Cox Farms is owned by Cox Enterprises.
“Hippo Harvest is doing something genuinely exciting in indoor agriculture, and we’re proud to be part of this next chapter,” said Steve Bradley, president of Cox Farms. “Cox Farms actively looks for opportunities to support innovation and new technologies across indoor agriculture. We can’t wait to watch them scale.”
Hippo Harvest indicated the funding will support a planned 30-acre expansion at a new facility in Hollister, Calif., which is currently in permitting. The company also plans to use the funds to develop its next-generation robotic growing system.
The expansion would increase Hippo Harvest’s growing capacity from one acre and speedup commercialization of its indoor-grown spinach, according to the company.
Hippo Harvest grows USDA-certified organic leafy greens using greenhouses, autonomous mobile robots and machine learning. The company said its system monitors, tends and harvests plants through different stages of growth.
“Closing this round and bringing Spinach to market in the same moment is a real signal of where Hippo Harvest is headed,” co-founder and CEO Eitan Marder-Eppstein said in the announcement. “We’ve spent years building a system that can grow certified organic greens consistently and at a price that works for both retailers and consumers. This investment lets us do that at the next level of scale.”
The company said its upgraded system uses robotic tractors to automatically respace growing modules during the growth cycle, an approach designed to use greenhouse space more efficiently, increase yields, raise throughput and lower cost per unit.
The new system also is intended to help it bring additional greens varieties to market at larger scale.
Hippo Harvest is commercializing indoor-grown spinach, a product it said marks a new step in its retail strategy. The company also launched butter lettuce to retail buyers in early 2026.
Together, spinach and butter lettuce form the base of a line of indoor-grown greens aimed at year-round consistency, Hippo Harvest said. The company also offers a hybrid assortment that combines greenhouse-grown and organic field-grown greens to give retailers more variety and more reliable supply.
Hippo Harvest was founded in 2019 and serves retail buyers in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Its customers include Sprouts, Haggen, an Albertsons banner, and Gus’s Community Markets in San Francisco.
The company said it plans to expand across the West Coast and is developing additional national retail partnerships.
Investors in the Series C included existing and new backers Congruent Ventures, Hawthorne Food Ventures, Collaborative Fund and the Fresh Investment Club.
The round follows a $21 million Series B that Hippo Harvest closed in February 2024. That earlier round was led by Standard Investments and included Congruent Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Hawthorne Food Ventures and Energy Impact Partners.
