Investing in Irrigreen’s Robotic Sprinklers to Eliminate Water Waste

Today, the MFV team is thrilled to announce our investment in Irrigreen, the leader in robotic irrigation systems. We are delighted to join Ulu Ventures, Burnt Island Ventures, and others in the company’s $15M seed financing round. As climate change exacerbates water scarcity and increases its cost, we’re excited to partner with Irrigreen CEO Shane Dyer and his team to provide consumers with a solution that uses approximately 50% less water than conventional irrigation systems and saves about 50% on outdoor water bills annually.

This investment is one of the first we’ve publicly announced from our Fund II. The fund has expanded our focus to climate and sustainability as we increasingly see investment opportunities at the intersection of deep tech and climate tech. We strongly believe that software alone will never solve the climate crisis. Hardware and embedded systems in the deep tech space, such as this solution from Irrigreen, will enable some of the most significant climate action. We’ve already seen that be the case with deep tech investments we’ve made around mobility's net-zero transition in companies such as Sun Mobility.?

Utilizing Deep Tech to Address Water Stress and Scarcity

Sources: World Resources Institute; United Nations

James Bruce, the famous hydrologist and co-founder of the IPCC, stated a decade ago that “If climate change is a shark, then water is its teeth.” Today, there is still little doubt that humans will feel the first real effects of climate change through water. In fact, the above map from the World Resources Institute highlights that a quarter of humanity faces a looming water crisis. More than 33 cities with over 3 million people face extremely high water stress, which also increases the likelihood of drought, heat stress, and wildfires. As climate change increases temperatures, more water on the surface evaporates, drying out soils and lowering future precipitation rates. The repercussions of these cascading climate impacts pose major challenges for agriculture, public health, and social unrest.

But humans, and specifically homeowners, have also been the culprits of water waste. Irrigation systems contribute to the 8 billion gallons of water used daily for outdoor landscaping – more than showering and washing clothes combined. Traditional sprinklers leave households wasting tens of thousands of gallons yearly as water bills skyrocket. The water waste taking place here, and also across commercial sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and energy industries, is begging for technology innovations to provide precision watering that better preserves water supplies.?

By moving from low-tech, imprecise household sprinklers to a deep tech-powered solution like Irrigreen, we can empower homeowners to adapt to water scarcity driven by climate change while also mitigating their own water waste. Irrigreen’s deep tech is found in its smart robotic head and software that combine to digitally map a lawn or landscape so it can “print” water precisely like an inkjet printer where it’s needed rather than aimlessly spraying.

Printing a Competitive Irrigation Advantage

As a deep tech fund, we look for companies with proprietary and hard-to-replicate technology that drives competitive advantage. Shane and Irrigreen’s differentiation around printing water certainly captured our interest, and the team has over 35 patents around the technology to their name. In addition to being robotic, the digital sprinkler heads are also intelligent IoT devices that receive weather data – such as impending rain – from a digital controller so that they can adjust watering schedules.

This also contributes to the 50% water savings, which a study from The Center for Irrigation Technology at Fresno State in California has validated. Best of all, the company already has a strong customer base using its current product. In fact, the company grew by 700% in recent years as customer demand for more efficient watering increased due to the deepening megadrought in the American West, which is at its driest in 1,200 years.

The residential and commercial irrigation markets are highly fragmented. And although lots of companies are bringing to market smart controllers that connect to soil or moisture sensors, nearly all of them control ‘dumb’ sprinkler heads. Irrigreen’s ability to embed software on the robotic head where it is delivering water is a major differentiator, and we believe they have an opportunity to be a market leader as a result.?

Welcome to MFV Portfolio, Irrigreen!