Verdi launched today at TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield, calling its smart valve cluster a "group." The term refers to the kind of high-density implementation the company hopes to roll out on North American farms. Through the transformation of existing irrigation technology, the goal of the system is to allow farmers to better control the amount of irrigation they deliver to crops.

The system uses third-party data collected by satellites (and future drones) to determine which parts of a particular crop are not getting enough water. The system divides the crop into small areas and uses machine learning to help the right amount of water reach where it is needed.

"There are many changes in the way plants grow. This is due to changes in soil and climate, which can happen within a few meters of the field," co-founder and CEO Arthur Chen told TechCrunch.

"Their existing infrastructure actually only allows them to do these one-size-fits-all treatments, treating each plant in the same way, even if they have unique growth needs. What we are trying to do here is to allow farmers to customize water, such as Fertilize individual flora or even a single plant in the field."

The company was established in 2019 as a spin-off company of the University of British Columbia. Appropriately, most of their original technologies have already been rolled out locally in British Columbia, partly due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19.

Currently, the installation of the system requires a representative to attend, so since its launch in early January, Verdi has been conducting most of the trials in its own province. However, California and Washington states are also piloting the system.

According to its data, the system can reduce irrigation costs by as much as 80% and provides accuracy 10 times higher than more traditional methods. The company’s main publicity to farmers is more accurate irrigation, although the company will rely better on potential water savings when marketing to potential investors, and these potential investors will almost certainly look for more for their portfolio. Green company. Of course, California, plagued by drought, can well look for more potential water-saving solutions.

To date, a team of four full-time employees provided by Startup Haven, Rarebreed Ventures, and Alchemist Accelerator has raised $1.08 million in pre-seed funding.