Jersey City, NJ — Oishii, the company behind the world’s largest indoor vertical strawberry smart farm, opened its Open Innovation Center in Hamura, Tokyo, on August 5, establishing a new, first-of-its-kind research hub focused on the central challenges shaping vertical farming today. The work will span scalable farming systems, productivity, sustainability, flavor, quality, and cultivation technologies for new varieties of fruits and vegetables.

The opening follows the first close of Oishii’s $150 million Series C in May 2026 and puts another piece of the company’s planned expansion across the U.S. and Japan into operation. The announcement identified the Open Innovation Center as a hub for growing Oishii’s R&D capabilities, alongside continued investment in robotics, farm infrastructure, and production across both markets.

The Center gives Oishii a dedicated place to build on nearly a decade of research and operating experience with its pesticide-free, non-GMO indoor vertically grown produce. That experience has shaped how Oishii approaches the challenges of scaling indoor agriculture, and the new facility brings a broader network of expertise into that work.

Oishii chose Japan for the Center because of the country’s expertise in agriculture and manufacturing, two fields that underpin many of vertical farming’s technical demands. The facility gives Oishii and its partners a shared environment to connect expertise across disciplines and apply it to vertical farming research.

That potential drew support from leaders across Japan’s government and industry at the Center’s opening ceremony. “By combining Japan’s exceptional crop varieties with the advanced technologies cultivated through its manufacturing sector, including robotics, and further enhancing them with emerging technologies such as AI, we can create unique value for the world,” says Norikazu Suzuki, Japan’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Some of the collaboration is already taking shape. NTT, an Oishii investor and strategic partner, is working with the company on optical approaches to pest and disease control and exploring voltage-controlled refrigeration to extend strawberry freshness and quality. NTT is also exploring where its broader capabilities could be applied within the Center’s research program.

“Building Oishii over the last ten years has given us a much clearer understanding of where some of the hardest questions in indoor agriculture lie,” said Hiroki Koga, Co-Founder and CEO of Oishii. “The Open Innovation Center gives us a place to bring that experience together with people who have spent their careers approaching these questions from very different fields. There is still a lot we want to learn, and that exchange can push our work in directions we may not reach on our own.”

As Oishii expands its work in Japan, the company is also preparing for its first commercial launch in the market. Sales are expected to begin by the end of 2026.

About Oishii

Oishii (which means “delicious” in Japanese) is the innovative company behind the world’s largest indoor vertical Smart Farm™. On a mission to transform the agriculture industry through the power of smart farming, Oishii harmoniously marries nature with state-of-the-art technology to create the ideal elements—rain, air, heat, light, nourishment and natural bee pollination—for growing in-season produce all year round. Oishii’s beloved Omakase, Koyo and Nikko Berries are grown in pesticide-free smart farms in the U.S. and proudly bear the Non-GMO Project Verified seal. Founded in 2016, Oishii’s investors include SPARX Asset Management, NTT, Yaskawa, McWin Capital Partners and Resilience Reserve. Oishii was recognized as one of Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies” in 2022.