FarmHQ, an agtech startup based in rural Burlington, Wash., has raised $500,000 from investors to grow its irrigation technology business, bringing its total funding to nearly $5 million.
The company has blossomed with more than 200 customers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia, and its revenue has more than doubled year-over-year.
With the new funding, FarmHQ plans to expand its technology and services for farms that use center pivot irrigation, which is the most common sprinkler system but tricky to automate. The sprinklers create circular crop patterns visible when flying over agricultural areas. The startup also aims to nearly double its headcount to nine employees by the year’s end.
While FarmHQ is marking significant growth, it has also been navigating challenges created by new U.S. tariffs on China and Canada. The startup is seeking domestic supplies for some of the hardware components it previously sourced from China, but they often cost more or aren’t available in the U.S., said co-founder and CEO David Wallace.
On the sales side, Canadian farmers represent 18% of the company’s business. That country has levied retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., making some customers to the north more reluctant to make purchases.
The trade battles are creating “confusion and frustration,” Wallace said.
Wallace and his brother Connor founded their company is 2020. The two grew up on the family’s potato farm in Skagit Valley, but left for college and jobs with tech companies.
They turned their attention to agtech after seeing firsthand how physically demanding and resource inefficient it was to operate water irrigation systems. The sprinklers could malfunction and flood crops, and required farmers to regularly go into the fields to monitor and control the systems.
The Wallaces launched CODA Farm Technologies, which rebranded last year to FarmHQ, to tackle the problem. Their technology regulates the water flow and shares irrigation data in real time to a smart phone dashboard. The platform can pair with a customer’s existing sprinklers and be deployed on irrigation pumps, valves and flow meters.
Irrigation innovation could help the agricultural sector, which is getting hammered economically as costs rise and profits decline. In the U.S., that’s being driven in large part by a labor shortage that has worsened as the Trump administration has pursued and arrested undocumented workers.
“Automation, digital transformation and workforce development are key strategies to address the labor shortage,” states a June 2025 report from FTI Consulting. “Companies must prioritize adopting technology, improving working conditions and fostering partnerships to drive innovation and efficiency.”
Additionally, water conservation is becoming increasingly important as the planet continues warming. In the U.S. alone, 36 states are currently in moderate to more severe droughts.
Wallace said customers are happy with FarmHQ’s products and services, which includes perks like free replacements for sensors should they break.
“Every grower wants the opportunity to evaluate the product for a season before they go all in,” he said, adding that most accounts are tripling their purchases after the first year. “We’re happy we earn their trust quickly.”
Despite FarmHQ’s success, the overall sector is bumpy. Agtech investments worldwide have been in steady decline since 2021, according to PitchBook data. Funding in the second quarter of this year totaled $1.5 billion, a 23% drop over the same period last year.
One of those rounds went to Verdi, a Vancouver, B.C., startup that announced $4.7 million in funding in May. The company is also tackling irrigation automation.
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