Hiroki Koga is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Oishii, the world’s largest indoor vertical strawberry farm. He founded the company in 2016 while pursuing his MBA at the University of California, Berkeley, driven by a mission to redefine how food is grown and experienced. Under his leadership, Oishii has become the only vertical farming company to successfully produce pollinated fruits at commercial scale, an achievement widely regarded as one of the most complex challenges in controlled-environment agriculture due to long cultivation cycles and precise growing requirements.
Prior to founding Oishii, Koga was a consultant in the Strategy and Operations practice at Deloitte Consulting Japan, where he specialized in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. He later played a key role in establishing the firm’s agriculture technology consulting efforts, advising leading vertical farm operators in Japan on business strategy and international expansion. He also collaborated with several venture capital firms, conducting due diligence on investments in vertical farming and related technologies.
Koga’s interest in transforming agriculture emerged during his consulting work with Japan’s early controlled-environment farming industry, where he observed growing pressures on global food systems. A subsequent visit to a US grocery store reinforced his belief that there was an opportunity to elevate the quality and consistency of fresh produce through innovation in farming.
Motivated to bring premium Japanese fruit to a global audience, Koga introduced Oishii’s signature Omakase Berry, originating from the Japanese Alps to the US market, followed by varietals such as the Koyo Berry, Rubi Tomato, and Nikko Berry. By combining traditional Japanese cultivation methods with advanced technologies including AI, robotics, and precision environmental controls, Koga and his team have developed a highly integrated farming model in which human expertise, automation, and natural pollination work in harmony. The result is a new standard for always-in-season, pesticide-free, non-GMO produce grown domestically, advancing a more sustainable and flavorful future for agriculture.
