Tule, an agritech startup, has been spun out of University of California Davis to tackle California’s growing drought problem.
The US-based company is providing sensor and monitoring technology which will oversee irrigation for farmers. Installed above crop canopies, the technology provides feedback to farmers on how much water plants are using, and also when and how much water needs to be applied.
Tule has the overarching objective of minimising the impact of the state’s ingoing drought, the estimated cost of which was $2.2bn and 17,100 jobs in 2014. However, the technology can also help in times of rainfall abundance with a focus on water efficiency, not matter how much water is available.
The firm has so far raised $120,000 in proof-of-concept funding from incubator Y Combinator, and has raised $1m in venture backing from Khosla Ventures and Bloomberg Beta, a corporate venture capital arm of news and data firm Bloomberg.
Tom Shapland, CEO of Tule, said: “Irrigation is the most important decision a farmer makes. Irrigation, more than any other factor, is going to influence how much yield — how much produce — they get from their field and the quality of that produce.”
Shapland added: “This isn’t a technology that is only helpful in periods of drought,” he said. “Our technology helps with that most important part of agriculture — irrigation management, [which determines quality and yield].”
