Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 6)

SM: How much of the market do you think you have penetrated?

DC: We will do just north of $11 million this year. We are different in that we have 500 customers in 50 countries around the world. We are at Series D, which I would normally equate with a company with really high revenues. In our case, however, we have three strategic products. They are really only two years old; in many ways we are only a Series B company. We raised Series C prior to this most recent recession. It is a good thing we did, because we survived the recession and we are doing well now. One of the new products from that round is the transport product.

SM: How much money have you raised?

DC: About $60 million. Foundation owns about 30% of the company and they are the ones who brought me in. Fred Grauer is the chairman and an investor. Chrysalix came in out of Vancouver, they are a dedicated cleantech VC firm. Series C involved some New York money, and Jafco came in on Series D. Most of their LPs are very large Japanese firms.

SM: Can you talk a bit about your fundraising for this type of a company?

DC: I have been on the other side when it was not possible to raise money, so I find myself fortunate to be on this side of the fence now. We have a great install base and very promising technology. The TAM is larger than most investors have seen. We are in revenue with real customers. Raising money has not been difficult. We have not marketed to raise money since Series B. We have turned down traditional money because we were able to drive and we wanted speed and simplicity. When it came to Series C I had five competing term sheets.

Today the excitement is [over] agtech. There is really a fascinating discussion about the growth of population in the world and the ability to sustain them with food. I work with companies in Pakistan, Ecuador, and other countries trying to grow their GDP. Agriculture is one of the easiest ways to grow GDP. Domestic consumption of agriculture gives no money, so building up agriculture and agriculture exports is huge. We are exporting mangroves out of India. Pakistan is trying to do the same with mangoes.

SM: The supply chain in India is broken, which I am sure you have found out already.

DC: It even starts before that. In India, the father has land and may split the land between two sons, who later split between their sons. The result is millions of growers who all have an acre of land. Quality control in that environment is almost impossible. There are almost no economies of scale. I was at the embassy in Washington, DC, talking to the Pakistani minister of trade. They experience 60% food loss during shipment. Who knows what is lost before?

One of the reasons agriculture is so exciting is that there will eventually be a shortage of goods. If you look at the land, you realize that 40% of the land that can grow food already has food growing on it. That means we have to take inefficiencies out of the supply chain.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope
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