greenhouses. Manhattan is too dense with little viable space, and Staten Island is hard to reach from a logistical perspective, he says.
Gotham Greens, co-founded in 2008 by Puri and Eric Haley, raised nearly $3 million in Series A funding in 2010 from angel investors. Puri said at Xconomy New York’s Venture Emergence forum on Feb. 1 that his company is looking to complete a Series B round—between $8 million and $10 million as stated at the event—this year. “That capital will go toward the construction of more greenhouse facilities,” Puri said at the event.
Though Gotham Greens is an agricultural business, it takes a bit of science to grow vegetable crops in a concrete Brooklyn neighborhood that is also home to a wastewater treatment facility. Gotham Greens uses a hydroponics method, rearing its crops in mineral nutrient solutions in water rather than soil. The water is re-circulated to the crops, and the greenhouse does not use chemical pesticides. “Gotham Greens is trying to target a consumer base that’s demanding fresher, cleaner, safer, and more competitively priced food,” Puri said.
The greenhouse is controlled and monitored by an automated computer system and draws some of its power from rooftop solar panels, which produce 70,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Gotham Greens’s vegetables are available in restaurants and 26 retail stores across New York, such as D’Agostino’s and Whole Foods, as well as homegrown markets.
During the venture event, I spoke with Puri about launching a green startup in a city that is heavy on technology and media ideas. “There were challenges because there was no precedent for it,” he says. “Trying to do commercial-scale agriculture in an urban area, especially a very dense urban area such as New York, no one had ever tried that before.” Puri says he has to contend with the logistics of clearing rooftop space to set up a greenhouse, address structural and zoning regulations, and gain access to adequate utilities.
Though attracting initial financing was a challenge, Puri says, bringing onboard scientists and technical personnel helped make Gotham Greens more compelling to investors and partners. Gotham Greens also raised some low-interest debt financing from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. “Having a prestigious science research organization backing us definitely lent us some credibility,” he says. Gotham Greens has 20 employees and Puri plans to hire additional staff as more greenhouses are built.
Puri says he looks for real estate with large rooftop space for potential greenhouse sites because “agriculture is an economy-of-scale business, so bigger is better.” In spite of his growth plans, he says Gotham Greens will focus on supplying local outlets rather than export its produce to distant regions.
Reflecting more on the early days, Puri says he started Gotham Greens to bring together clean technology, renewable energy, and his personal passion for fresh food. “New York is such a foodie town. To meld that along with clean technology was a compelling business opportunity,” he says. It would seem that “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” after all.
