Agriculture tech startup Verdi raised a $4.7 million seed round to expand its technology for smarter irrigation of crops including wine grapes, berries, nuts, tree fruits, vegetables and other produce.
The Vancouver, B.C., company is building devices that integrate with existing irrigation systems, allowing farmers to monitor watering and remotely control valves to turn the flow of water off and on.
“We’re adding a layer of intelligence to what is already there,” said Verdi co-founder and CEO Arthur Chen.
Chen and CTO Roman Kozak met as engineering students at the University of British Columbia. Both came from families who had been farmers — Chen’s in Asia and Kozak’s in Eastern Canada. They were interested in addressing a problem for the sector, which in this case is water conservation and labor efficiencies.
Chen and Kozak launched Verdi in 2021 while they were still in college, and have since grown to two-dozen employees. The startup has raised more than $6.6 million in total and its technology is deployed across 5,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada. It’s also starting projects in Peru and Portugal.
Farmers understand the benefits of automating tasks, but don’t always embrace new devices because of the costs and complexities associated with installation. Chen said they listened to and addressed those concerns.
“Our mission here is really to make modern automation tools successful for growers,” he said. “It’s really gratifying to actually see that happen in the field.”
Verdi also offers AI-enabled software that includes predictive tools to help farmers with irrigation-related decisions. The sector is facing new challenges, including adapting to the impacts of climate change, Chen said, and managing payrolls.
Last year, the startup said its technology saved customers roughly $1 million in labor costs associated with irrigation and more than 100 million liters of water.
Chen said they’re watching the tariff policies being pushed by the Trump administration, but so far have not been impacted due to existing treaties and agreements between the U.S. and Canada.
Verdi’s funding round somewhat bucks the larger trends in the global ag tech sector. PitchBook reports that funding in the sector is down 3.7% for the first quarter of this year, compared to the start of 2024.
“The shift toward larger, later-stage deals continued to dominate the ag tech VC landscape in Q1,” analysts wrote. “Early-stage investments, particularly in pre-seed/seed rounds, remained subdued.”
The Pacific Northwest is home to another irrigation tech startup — FarmHQ, which is located in Seattle and Western Washington’s Skagit Valley — as well as ag tech companies offering robots that remove weeds and rocks from farmland.
The seed round was led by SVG Ventures, with participation from NEC X, Ponderosa Ventures (a member of Galvanize Climate Solutions’ platform), Elemental Impact, GenomeBC, One Small Planet, Waterpoint Lane,
Dangerous Ventures, VentureUs, Echo River Capital, Cyan Ventures, Jetstream and Baker Hall Capital.
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