Israeli agritech company N-Drip, a developer of innovative irrigation technology, has completed a C round of funding amounting to $44 million.
To date, the company has raised $80 million from investors in the US, Europe, and Israel. Among them are Granot, the investment company of the kibbutzim of the Sharon region, which led the company’s previous round, the Bridges Israel impact investment fund, irrigation equipment company Metzerplas Industries, Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud, and a group of private investors from the US.
N-Drip develops advanced irrigation systems that enable farmers who use flood methods for irrigation to switch to more precise and efficient irrigation that makes use of gravity, with no need for external energy input or pressure-based filters. The company says that it has developed a system that is cheap, easy to install, and easy to maintain.
The company currently employs over 100 people, and is active in seventeen countries. Its management, research division, and production facility are located in Israel.
N-Drip was founded by chairman and CTO Prof. Uri Shani, Dr. Ariel Halperin, and Ran Ben-Or. Its CEO is Eran Pollak, formerly Deputy Budgets Commissioner at the Ministry of Finance. "The current round will support the company’s rapid growth, as demand rises because of the global water crisis that is making farmers and policy makers seek solutions that will enable them to continue growing food and fibers, using less water," Pollak said. "Farmers with farms of all sizes and in all geographical regions will be able to use our transformative technologies to ensure stability and continued income, while joining in the global effort to reduce substantially the greenhouse gases produced by farming."
One of the innovations offered by the company is N-Drip Connect, a decision making system that the company says is based on a sensor that is unique for its reliability and data verification. What is special about this system is that it enables its users to monitor a field continually, while providing real-time recommendations on irrigation and fertilizing, and also providing recommendations for and the means of exhaustive use of water and fertilizers. According to the company, this system is capable of predicting yield about six weeks before harvest.
According to figures supplied by N-Drip, 85% of irrigated agricultural land around the world is irrigated using flood irrigation. This method is inefficient, and causes massive degradation of the land and even to harm to crops, and substantial emissions of methane, a damaging greenhouse gas. N-Drip also says that the existing alternatives on the market are expensive and uneconomical. The company explains that water pumps become coated, and that its irrigation system can represent a genuine, economical alternative.
Analysis of hundreds of projects among farmers using the N-Drip system that the company has carried out shows that those farmers achieve savings of water of 50%, 30% increases in yields, 50% reductions in the use of fertilizers, and reductions of emissions of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide of between 50% and 85%.
The current funding round was led by the holding company of the Principality of Liechtenstein, an international group of companies, and an investment platform based in Austria that invests in, among other things, the areas of food and agriculture, forestry, renewable energy, and real estate.
Other participants are Hamilton Lane, a US investment house with representation in Israel that focuses on green and innovative investment, and Natural Ventures, which also focuses on green investment, in connection with water, energy and food around the world, accelerating the adoption and use of innovative technologies in the Middle East and Asia.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 21, 2023.
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