Israeli Agtech Startup SupPlant Raises $10M For Sensorless Irrigation System

By Nina Wei, NoCamels June 14, 2021 2 minutes

SupPlant's sensor-less irrigation technology. Screenshot

Israeli agriculture company SupPlant, a developer of sensorless irrigation technology, announced this week that it raised $10 million in a funding round co-led by Boresight Capital, Menomadin Foundation, Smart-Agro Fund and Mivtah Shamir.

The investment brings SupPlants’s total funding since the company was founded in 2012 to over $19 million.

SupPlant developed a sensor-less irrigation technology that relies on the collection of real-time data and the processing of intelligent algorithms to generate precise irrigation plans. The company uploads real-time data from soil, plant, and weather sensors to an algorithm in the cloud, which then provides precise irrigation recommendations to farmers.

The system offers low-cost irrigation solutions without the necessity of larger capital investments in hardware on the ground, allowing small growers to benefit from an adaptable irrigation strategy, the company indicates. SupPlant’s technology aims to address the impact of global warming worldwide on smallholder farmers and is designed for the world’s 450 million small growers, as 76 percent of farmers grow crops on less than 2 hectares.

The company says its technology grew by 1,200 percent in 2020 and its systems are used widely in Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, and Australia. By September 2021, SupPlant projects its technology to be implemented by 500,000 farmers in Kenya, Africa. And in SupPlant envisions that over 2 million small growers in Africa and India will be on board as well.

SupPlant CEO Ori Ben Ner said the fresh funds will allow the company “to speed up [the] implementation of our new development – a fully sensor-less industry-defining irrigation regime.”

The tech, he emphasized, “is built for the vast majority of farmers on earth – smallholders that can’t afford access to hardware intense technology and unique knowledge.”

SupPlant’s solution, said Jeffrey Swartz, partner at Boresight, “is a concrete example of how technology can improve our world,” providing “actionable insight farmers can turn into smart irrigation decisions, by ‘talking with’ the plants that produce our foods.”