Arthur Chen, CEO and co-founder of the irrigation startup Verdi, came from a farming family.
“I was actually the first generation that didn’t have to farm growing up and that’s ironically what got me very interested in agriculture,” he said.
Chen co-founded Verdi in 2020 with fellow Canadian entrepreneur Roman Kozak. The company produces devices that can retrofit existing irrigation infrastructure into an app-connected automated irrigation system. Chen said growers currently using Verdi’s devices liken them to smart home devices, but for watering specialty crops.
With the startup, Chen brought his engineering training to bear on growers’ pain points around irrigation. He said the company is especially focused on the adoption of automation technology.
“When you talk to any grower, they tend to understand the benefits of automated irrigation,” he told The Packer, citing labor and water savings being key. “But about 95% of them we found still prefer not to use automation. They prefer to do things manually instead. As we dug into it, we realized that it’s because automation is really expensive and tends to be hard to set up.”
Chen said his company is trying to help growers overcome those adoption barriers by making an easy-to-install automation solution.
“We can retrofit to a wide variety of different equipment. If you have a valve, for example, we can retrofit that to turn it into a smart valve,” he explained. “Really all it takes is you have to plug in a few wires in order for that valve to be controlled remotely. Then you scan a QR code on our devices, and that connects it to the internet just by scanning it.”
Chen said the devices can be applied to a wide variety of devices, including pumps or even “a single piece of drip tube if you want row-level irrigation control or monitoring.”
To date, the company has devices in over 5,000 acres of mostly vineyards and fruit and nut orchards in North America, but the company’s next milestone is getting into 10,000 acres, he said.
New financing allows for expansion
Verdi announced its latest seed round raised $6.5 million Canadian ($4.7 million U.S.) May 15. Chen said the financing will allow Verdi to expand its products and reach more growers.
“It really allows us to continue what we’ve been doing with co-developing this alongside growers in the field,” he told The Packer. “There is a lot of outside capital that has come into agriculture that is more speculative. What we’ve focused on with this financing is to work with strategic partners, partners who have a vested interest in the success of growers.”
SVG Ventures led the funding round.
“We invested in Verdi because they’re solving one of agriculture’s biggest challenges — climate resilience — through a solution that is not only innovative but also practical and scalable,” SVG Ventures CEO John Hartnett said in Verdi’s news release about the seed round. “Their ability to integrate with existing farm infrastructure makes their platform a game changer for growers looking to stay competitive in a changing world.”
In addition to the goal of expanding into 10,000 acres, Chen said Verdi is aiming to expand into different crops.
“We work with over 20 different types of crops right now, so we are quite agnostic,” he said. “The new one that we’ve gotten into, especially with this new round of financing, is going to vegetable crops. So, [we’re] making sure we’re developing this in the right way that serves growers in that particular vertical.”
He added that the company’s current focus is on working with growers who already use drip or sprinkler irrigation, since that infrastructure can most benefit from retrofitting. However, Verdi is looking to expand to meet other grower needs too.
“A really big piece of that is really leaning into the data that growers can get from various sources, but actually turning it into something actionable for them,” Chen said. “That’s a big focus for us in terms of our software development.”
