Bassett Capital
Assembly Line
Four Growers raises $9M to keep picking tomatoes, cucumbers with robots
The most recent Series A, led by Bassett Capital, builds on a previous raise of $6 million from Y Combinator and other venture funds. Since the company spun out of the University of Pittsburgh in 2018, it’s been a slog of slow, low-cost development, Mr. Contino said. “Now that we’ve got it working, and it’s really been proven, it’s now ramping up the production.”
Four Growers’ main robot, GR-100, harvests produce in greenhouses, which makes it easier to test and iterate, and also means that the bot can operate almost continuously. There are still hurdles though. “Making it cost effective for not only our customers but the consumers is an incredibly difficult challenge,” Mr. Contino said.