By Joey Lechene

August 14, 2023 - 5 Mins Read

Growing up in their native León, Guanajuato, the cousins Jorge Lizardi and Juan Succar They knew they shared a passion and a goal: sustainable businesses and boost the food industry in Mexico and the world. So they decided to found Compact Green, an agrotech startup dedicated to designing and installing innovative hydroponic greenhouses. These factors combined to attract the tusks of two sharks from Shark Tank Mexico who now join the sustainable company as partners.

“All our lives we have been in nature, on the ranch. We love the countryside and, well, our dream has always been to start a business in the agricultural industry,” says Jorge, who studied business at Tec de Monterrey, in an interview for Entrepreneur.com.

The startup started with the objective of transforming the food production chain towards a more sustainable one.

“We seek to revolutionize the plate through food safety, using innovation and technology to produce more food with fewer resources. We design systems that allow us to produce food throughout the year, regardless of the season or the weather, free of pesticides and toxins, with zero waste of water and close to the final consumer”, explains Juan, also a Mechatronics graduate from ITESM. .

What is Verde Compacto and how was it born?

The cousins ​​started working together “as a hobby” in 2014, producing compost and vermicompost for gardens and always looking to improve their processes. “Although we study different things, what has united us is the passion for sustainability and for doing business. At Verde Compacto we can combine those passions and exploit them”, they say.

“We began to manage other eco-techniques for the use of organic waste in the field and in rural communities”Succar explains. After implementing them for the State Government and knowing in depth how the countryside and the food industry work, they set out to make it more sustainable.

His project was selected in 2016 to enter a business incubator at his alma mater. There they discovered that there were methods such as hydroponics cultivation and the urban vertical farmingtwo technologies with very little presence in Mexico and Latin America.

“We pivoted to focus on hydroponic agriculture, but now vertically and in closed spaces. That is, vertical hydroponics in a controlled environment. We obtained the investment for the first stage of the project through crowdfunding and we started”, details Lizardi.

Verde Compacto is dedicated to building farms and greenhouses with vertical hydroponics systems in a controlled environment. In addition to design and installation, the startup provides all the training, support and advice to its clients, “so that anyone can start their fresh food production business.”

In the country and the city

Today they have two models: forage and vegetable. The first is aimed at the production of livestock feed and consists of 30-square-meter containers, recycled and adapted to function as greenhouses. This can produce the same per year as half a hectare or 5,000 square meters, the entrepreneurs say.

They also offer custom systems that can be adapted to wineries, laboratories, hotels, restaurants or private homes that want to produce their own food or start a small business. These require a minimum of 4 square meters and can produce vegetables, tubers, flowers, herbs, and other edibles.

The next step is to produce home systems for apartments, which can be installed in spaces from one square meter. “In that space you can produce between 150 and 200 plants.

Harvesting investments in Shark Tank Mexico

Since its inception, young people from Leon have dedicated themselves not only to strengthening themselves as a business but also as a brand present in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. That positioning paid off, as it led them to the shark pond in Shark Tank Mexico.

His preparation included “watching all the seasons of the program, analyzing in detail the profiles of each ‘shark’, the pitches, what they evaluate. We didn’t want to get caught ‘in a curve’, and it did help”, says Lizardi.

Jorge and Juan presented their pitch in front of Marisa Lazo, Alejandra Rios, Marcus Dantus, Amaury Vergara and Bryan Requart. The cousins ​​made an initial offer to give up 5% of the company in exchange for an investment of 2 million pesos.

Although they had a very interesting offer from Marcus, in the end, the founders of Compact Verde were left with the two sharks they had in their sights from the beginning: Ale Rios and Amaury Vergarawho closed the deal for 2 million in exchange for 10% of Verde Compacto.

The investment will be destined to continue developing technology to make agriculture more sustainable, combat food uncertainty and promote local production for businesses and self-consumption.

Sustainable agriculture Agrotech agrotechnology Amauri Vergara Hydroponics hydroponic greenhouses sustainable business Shark Tank Mexico Compact Green

Lead photo: Juan Succar and Jorge Lizardi, founders of Verde Compacto. Photo: Courtesy Shark Tank Mexico/Sony