Kilimo uses ~100,000 ground soil samples across 45 crop types to calibrate satellite imagery and remotely monitor soil moisture at the field level. The company provides farmers advisory services on irrigation and charges a fee for that service. When farmers successfully cut water use Kilimo sells the surplus water to companies in the same watershed and shares proceeds with the farmers; farmers typically net 20–40% more than they paid Kilimo. All savings and transfers are verified by third parties using the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting standard. Kilimo has operated for about a decade and currently works across South America (it is based in Argentina) and in Mexico, with plans to expand into the Southwestern United States and Europe. It has partnerships or engagements with Microsoft, Intel and Coca-Cola as part of its corporate customers and collaborators. Kilimo develops a platform that helps producers manage irrigation by combining meteorological, satellite and field data with Big Data analytics to optimize water use and crop yields. The company says its solution can improve crop yields by up to 30% and increase water-use efficiency by up to 70%. Kilimo is also building a "water replenishment" or compensation system that links farmers using the technology with corporations seeking to achieve water-neutral goals. That system is currently applied in Mexico and Chile, and Kilimo operates in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Mexico with clients in Uruguay, Guatemala and Brazil. The startup plans to expand the compensation program to other regional markets with technified irrigation and high-value crops. Kilimo estimated that by the end of 2022 it will have saved about 50 billion liters of water, equivalent to six months of human consumption for a population of more than three million people.

Total raised

$8M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Jun 2024