Four Growers
Pittsburgh-based robotics startup building AI-powered autonomous harvesting robots for commercial greenhouses, starting with tomatoes and cucumbers.
Four Growers, Inc. is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based agricultural robotics company founded in 2017 by Dan Chi and Brandon Contino. The company builds autonomous robots designed to harvest produce in commercial greenhouses, directly addressing the labor shortage that limits greenhouse operators from scaling production.
The flagship product is the GR-100, an autonomous harvesting robot designed for high-wire greenhouse tomato production. The GR-100 uses multiple stereo cameras and computer vision algorithms to identify ripe tomatoes on the vine and maneuvers a robotic arm and gripper to harvest individual fruits without damaging surrounding unripe produce. Alongside harvesting, the system captures plant health analytics data for yield management, disease detection, and agronomic decision-making. The robot is designed to operate on greenhouse rail systems, autonomously navigating through production rows.
Greenhouse tomatoes account for approximately 50% of all fresh tomatoes consumed in the United States, representing a substantial commercial target. The segment is characterized by high and rising labor costs, making automation economically attractive for large-scale operators. Four Growers expanded beyond tomatoes to include cucumber harvesting in 2024, broadening its addressable market within controlled environment agriculture.
Four Growers was accepted into Y Combinator Summer 2018 batch and has raised approximately 15 million USD in total venture funding. The Series A round of 9 million USD was led by Basset Capital with participation from Y Combinator, Ospraie Ag Science, and other investors. The company has also established a collaboration with Syngenta Vegetable Seeds on robotic tomato harvesting research, enabling faster innovation cycles in both robot development and seed variety selection optimized for robotic harvest compatibility.
Four Growers operates from Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and employs approximately 14 people. Its combination of autonomous harvesting hardware and a plant analytics platform positions the company as both a robotics manufacturer and a data intelligence provider for commercial greenhouse operators. The company roadmap targets scaling across North America and expanding into European and Oceanian greenhouse markets, where similar labor dynamics create comparable commercial opportunities for automation.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
GR-100 Greenhouse Harvesting Robot
- Model: GR-100
- Launch Year: 2021
Autonomous greenhouse robot that harvests ripe tomatoes and cucumbers using stereo vision and AI, while capturing plant health analytics.
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Contact Four Growers
WEBSITE
https://fourgrowers.com/HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2017
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
