N-Drip
Ltd., the fast-growing, Israel-based AgriTech company with a revolutionary
irrigation technology has closed on a US$44 million C round, which may be
extended due to investor demand.
Investors
include the Liechtenstein Group, Hamilton Lane, and Natural Ventures as well as
investors from previous rounds, Granot Group, Bridges Israel, Kibbutz Ein Harod
Ihud, and a group of US-based investors. Co-founders and investors are Prof.
Uri Shani, Dr. Ariel Halperin, and Ran Ben-Or.
The
company holds a variety of patents around the world that allow farmers to
irrigate their previously flood-irrigated fields using only gravity and no
external energy to either filter the water or propel it across the field.
The
low-cost, easy-to-install, and easy-to-maintain system was invented by Professor
Uri Shani, Israel’s former Water Commissioner, who is also the company’s
Chairman and Chief Technology Officer. N-Drip, led by CEO Eran Pollak, with
nearly 100 employees, currently does business in 17 countries, with a special
emphasis on the US, India, and Australia.
As
part of the on-field solution, N-Drip also developed N-Drip Connect, a
sensor-based decision-support solution that is unique in its accuracy, allowing
farmers and any other interested parties to continuously monitor a given field.
The sensor provides real-time recommendations as to irrigation and fertilizer
application, offering yet additional means for maximizing water and nutrient
usage.
The
system can also predict with extraordinary accuracy the size of a harvest as
much as six weeks in advance of the scheduled harvest. Although the sensor is
ordinarily sold with the N-Drip irrigation equipment, the sensor works equally
well with any form of irrigation.
Globally,
85percent of all irrigated fields – in all, more than 600 million acres – are
flood irrigated. This includes hot and very dry places such as Arizona, with
summer temperatures exceeding 120 degrees Fahrenheit, but in which the vast
majority of all agriculture utilizes the flood irrigation method.
Flood
irrigation is characterized by a highly inefficient water use, massive soil
depletion, and, in certain crops, the substantial emission of methane, one of
the most harmful greenhouse gases. With water resources becoming strained, the
N-Drip technology is a game-changer for farmers, governments, water utilities, and
industry, among others.
Farmers
who switch from flood irrigation to N-Drip routinely achieve water savings of 50 percent, yield increases of up to 33 percent, fertilizer reduction of 50 percent,
and a drop in greenhouse gases like carbon and methane from 50 percent to 85 percent.
Liechtenstein
Group is a worldwide investor in smart, sustainable agriculture, among other
core investment areas. The Liechtenstein Group is a strategic holding company
owned by the Foundation Prince Liechtenstein. Among many other assets, it is
the owner of RiceTec, one of the world’s largest producers of hybrid rice
seeds.
“We are looking forward to assisting N-Drip with the
global adoption of its irrigation technology, especially in rice. N-Drip’s
technology fits very well with RiceTec and its technology around direct-seeded
herbicide-tolerant rice. We believe that the combination of these two
technologies has the power to transform the way rice is grown and substantially
eliminate the negative carbon footprint of rice farming,” said Johannes Meran, Liechtenstein Group’s CEO, and
Managing Partner. “RiceTec is already developing projects with N-Drip on our
own rice fields.”
As
part of the current funding round, N-Drip and RiceTec have entered into a
strategic cooperation agreement for the marketing of N-Drip’s technologies in
rice fields in the US, India, and elsewhere.
“N-Drip has enjoyed remarkable growth, with 7x growth in
2022, and more than 3x percent growth projected for this year,” said N-Drip CEO Eran Pollak. “The current funding round will support the company’s rapid growth at
the same time as a global water crisis has farmers and policymakers looking for
solutions that will allow them to continue to grow food and fiber, although
with less water.
Farmers with farms of all sizes and in all geographies
will be able to make use of our transformative technologies to help assure
stability and continued farm income while also joining the worldwide effort to
meaningfully reduce agricultural greenhouse gases.” Deutsche Bank acted
as sole placement agent to N-Drip on this transaction.