Four Growers, a startup building harvesting robots to reduce the production costs of greenhouse growers, says it closed a Series A funding round with $9 million raised.

The funding will be used to scale the production of its GR-100 harvesting robot and expand its global reach in Europe, North America and Oceania, according to a news release. The GR-100, an artificial intelligence-powered robotic system, detects the ripeness of fruits and vegetables and optimizes harvesting techniques, said the company, adding that its solutions boast a 98% accuracy in selecting ripe crops.

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“While we’ve started with greenhouse tomatoes, which account for 50% of all the fresh tomatoes consumed in the U.S., our technology has now proven its potential in other crops like cucumbers and will be applied to all fruits and vegetables in both greenhouses and fields,” Brandon Contino, CEO of Four Growers. “Securing this funding enables us to accelerate the integration of our AI and robotics into agriculture, improving global food production and ensuring sustainable, high-quality, and affordable produce is available for everyone.”

Contino and co-founder Dan Chi have raised more than $15 million in funding and secured a strategic partnership with Syngenta Vegetable Seeds to advance the development of the robotic harvester, according to the release. The company said it also plans to use the latest funds to expand its research and development to continue to optimize greenhouse operations.

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The funding round was led Basset Capital, with contributions from Ospraie Ag Science, Y Combinator and other existing investors.

“From the outset, it was apparent that the Four Growers team had made significant advancements in solving long-standing issues in the agriculture sector,” John Overbeck of Basset Capital said in the release. “Implementation of robotics and AI in agriculture will provide a great opportunity to enhance operations and significantly increase productivity.”

The Packer Staff

Source: www.thepacker.com