YC‑Backed Four Growers Deploys Robots to Tackle Greenhouse Labor Shortage

From Dirt‑Covered Desk to Factory‑Quality Robots: The Four Growers Tale

Picture this: a tiny desk tucked behind a row of tomato plants, a laptop humming, and two entrepreneurs living inside a greenhouse for a full year. That was the reality for Brandon Contino and co‑founder Dan Chi while they were building what would become Four Growers’ flagship produce‑harvesting robots.

Living, Breathing, and Coding in the Heat

• They ran everything off a single laptop.
• Contino spent most of his time coding at the plant row.
• Chi tackled mechanical tweaks just a few feet away.
• They’d run the system, tweak the code, redeploy, and repeat—a cycle that felt a lot like a work‑week, but inside a greenhouse.

“We’d pop back in, fire it up again, and keep the fun rolling,” Contino told TechCrunch. “Living at the farm basically became our office.”

Four Growers: Robots That Know When a Tomato’s Ready to Pick

The result? Robots that can autonomously harvest growers’ crops, identifying the perfect ripeness level by using a network of stereo cameras. They’re smart enough to steer an arm around non‑ripe fruit, keep the vines intact, and—most importantly—pick tomatoes right at the sweet spot.

• Uses multiple stereo cameras for real‑time fruit detection.
• Smart routing to avoid harming unripe fruit.
• Currently tuned for tomatoes; soon to handle cucumbers and more.

Why Robot Harvesters? The Story Behind the Invention

Contino’s journey started in college with a fascination for neural prosthetics. He pivoted to water sensors after realizing he wasn’t ready to become a robot‑cyborg engineer. That switch led him straight to farms, where he discovered that robotics could be a bigger help than he first imagined.

He says:

“Cold‑calling greenhouse farmers revealed a single, glaring problem: labor. This was no surprise, even in outdoor farms—labor scarcity is the universal pain point. If crops sit too long waiting for a human hand, they rot, and revenue vanishes like a bad joke at a party.”

Labor Crunch 2024

• National Association of State Departments of Agriculture reports a “critical shortage” of workers.
• Greenhouses, with year‑round growth and frequent harvest schedules, are especially prone to labor bottlenecks.
• Close proximity to final consumers drives the need for faster, reliable harvesting.

He notes that greenhouse farms are a prime candidate for robotics because:

• They operate nearly all year.
• They produce closer to the consumer.
• They need economies of scale and frequent harvest cycles.

Looking Forward

Four Growers plans to roll out commercial robots for tomatoes now, with cucumbers, berries, and other greenhouse crops on the horizon. The aim is simple: give farmers a dependable, tech‑savvy partner that turns labor shortages into $$$ and lets everyone enjoy juicy, on‑time produce.

“Soon we’ll be able to buy robots instead of hiring more people—kind of like a kitchen gadget for the entire crop industry,” Contino smiles.

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Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They’re here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise.

Four Growers Goes Big on Robot Harvesting: New Funding, Big Challenges, and a New Buzz for Tech‑Driven Farming

In the high‑tech precincts of Pittsburgh, a nifty little startup called Four Growers is having its moment of glory. Founded in 2018 and born into the world of autonomous tomato‑pickers in 2023, the company has already worked with five farms and has cultivated millions of tomatoes with its robots.

Money Moves: A $9 Million Boost

• The most recent round was a Series A of $9 million, topped off by Basset Capital with Y Combinator, Ospraie Ag Science, and a host of existing backers joining the party.
• In total, Four Growers has pulled in $15 million in venture capital.
• The influx will help the company scale up its robot programming and keep pace with a demand that’s skyrocketing faster than a tomato‑sizing engineer’s coffee consumption.

Timing Is Everything (and a Touch of Timing Trouble)

The announcement came just weeks after the Bowery Farms saga—an indoor‑farming powerhouse that had to shut down due to crop diseases and razor‑thin margins. It’s a stark reminder that the field is tough, and the narrative is alive with both triumph and cautionary tales.

Why the Team Chose “Real Farms” over “Futuristic Vertical Gardens”

Founder & CEO Contino says he’d love everyone in the space to thrive, but vertical farms are “particularly hefty and cost‑intensive.” He walked through the idea of starting his own vertical garden but felt that the real win lay in building nifty tech for existing farms rather than launching a new one from scratch.

He shared a update that they’re not just hanging onto the harvesting phase; the vision stretches out to outdoor farms and beyond.

The Competitive Landscape: Who’s Who?

• Carbon Robotics – $143 million in funding, a heavyweight in the robot sector.
• Blue River Technology & Bear Flag Robotics – both were snapped up by John Deere after raising their own capital.
• Seso – approaching labor woes from a different angle by helping farms onboard migrant workers.

What Contino Means by “Augmentation”

“It’s not really a labor replacement. It’s more of an augmentation,” Contino says.
“As the labor force shrinks and fewer people are willing to get their hands dirty, we’re stepping in to make jobs more comfortable and allow one person to manage a lot more.”

Bottom Line

With fresh funding, a solid track record of hands‑on robots, and a vision that spans both indoor and outdoor fields, Four Growers is poised to lead the next wave of farm automation—one tomato at a time.