Global food and beverage company PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP) and Israeli micro-drip irrigation company N-Drip, have signed a partnership agreement worth a potential $50 million annually.
N-Drip's smart irrigation systems provide an alternative irrigation method to flood or trench irrigation and allow significant savings in water, larger yields and reduced use of fertilizers. In the first stage, N-Drip's te3chnology will be used in 25,000 acres of fields in the US, India, South Africa and Europe, with the deal worth an estimated $20 million annually to N-Drip.
PepsiCo buys 25 different types of crops from 60 countries and helps farmers increase their produce by using a range of methods. With Pepsico's total acreage amounting to 125,000, the cooperation agreement is likely to expand significantly.
N-Drip was cofounded by chairman and CTO Prof. Uri Shani, Ariel Halperin and Ran Ben-Or and Eran Pollak is its CEO.
Pollak said, "As PepsiCo sources crops from farms of all types and sizes, N-Drip's proprietary technology allows our partnership to make precise irrigation accessible to all types of farmers, from those with massive farms to those with one-acre plots."
PepsiCo VP sustainable agriculture Rob Meyers added, "To date, we've implemented N-Drip's technology with farmers in India, Vietnam, and the US, and saw improved crop yields, reduced fertilizer usage, and 50% less water consumed compared to flood irrigation."
The partnership was sourced by PepsiCo Labs, PepsiCo's technology venturing arm, which works to identify and embed breakthrough technology start-ups into PepsiCo's operations to help solve complex, real-world problems and meet business goals at a global scale.
N-Drip has raised $40 million to date from strategic and financial investors in the US and Israel.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 16, 2022.
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