Kubota Takes a Stake in a Japanese Agritech Start-up — PLANTX Corp., developer of a plant cultivation system using artificial light —
November 30, 2020
Kubota Corporation
Kubota Corporation (Headquarters: Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan; President and Representative Director: Yuichi Kitao; hereinafter, "Kubota") announced today that it has taken a stake in PLANTX Corp. (Headquarters: Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture; CEO: Kosuke Yamada; hereinafter, "PLANTX"), a Japanese start-up who has been developing a plant cultivation system using artificial light and a plant growth-rate management system. Kubota expects that this capital commitment to the agritech start-up will allow it to contribute to the efficient production and stable supply of food.
Background and aims
- In a bid to promote open innovation through partnerships with external organizations, Kubota established the Innovation Center in June 2019 and has since invested in and discussed partnerships with start-ups from around the world.
- Focusing on "plant factories using artificial light," which achieve stable and highly-efficient production regardless of external factors such as abnormal weather, we have decided to invest in PLANTX which, using advanced technology in this field, has been developing a proprietary plant cultivation system using artificial light.
- The cultivation system is neatly separated into rooms where environment condition is controlled precisely and uniformly.Thus the productivity per unit area of Plantx’s cultivation system is higher than that of conventional plant factories using artificial light. PLANTX intends to use the funds raised this time to establish a mother factory to demonstrate that their system is capable of achieving efficient and stable production on a factory scale.
- With this investment, Kubota will strengthen ties with PLANTX, thereby contributing to efficient food production and stable food supply by jointly promoting the commercialization of plant factories using artificial light.
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Prototype enclosed-type cultivation system
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Graphical representation of PLANTX's mother factory scheduled to be constructed
About PLANTX
| Company name | PLANTX Corp |
|---|---|
| Representative | Kosuke Yamada, CEO |
| Establishment | June 2014 |
| Location | Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan |
| Business | Services specialized in plant factories using artificial lighting
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| URL | http://www.plantx.co.jp/ |
[Reference]
Previous releases on Kubota's investments in agritech businesses