Hippo Harvest has raised US$30 million in a Series C funding round to expand its indoor greenhouse production, commercialize organic spinach and develop a new generation of robotic growing technology.

The funding round was led by Cox Farms and will support the construction of a new 30-acre greenhouse facility in Hollister, California, pending permits. It will also fund the company’s next-generation robotic growing system, increasing production capacity from its current one-acre operation.

The expansion comes as Hippo Harvest brings organic spinach to market following the retail launch of its butter lettuce earlier this year. The company said the two crops will form the foundation of a broader line of indoor-grown leafy greens designed to provide retailers with a more consistent year-round supply.

Hippo Harvest’s production system combines autonomous mobile robots (AMR) with machine learning to monitor, maintain and harvest crops. The upgraded system will use robotic vehicles to automatically reposition growing modules throughout the production cycle to improve space use, increase yields and lower production costs.

“Closing this round and bringing spinach to market in the same moment is a real signal of where Hippo Harvest is headed,” said Eitan Marder-Eppstein, CEO and co-founder of Hippo Harvest. “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.”

Founded in 2019 and based in Pescadero, California, Hippo Harvest currently supplies leafy greens to retailers across Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, including Sprouts, Haggen and Gus’s Community Markets. The company plans to expand distribution across the U.S. West Coast while pursuing additional national retail partnerships.

According to the company, its greenhouse production system uses 92 percent less water, 55 percent less fertilizer and 94 percent less land than conventional field production through a closed-loop irrigation and nutrient system integrated with robotic crop management.

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