smart-irrigation
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The Denver Guy Who Watched Sprinklers Run in the Rain - And Built a $22M Water Company
A dog walk during a Denver rainstorm turned into a decade-long bet: that the smartest thing a sprinkler can do is know when to stay off. 150 billion gallons later, Rain Bird bought the whole thing.
Irrigreen
Irrigreen makes a digital, robotic sprinkler system that uses inkjet-printer-inspired technology to paint water onto a lawn with near-pixel precision. Custom zone shapes, weather-aware AI scheduling, and a single rotating head that replaces a half-dozen old-school sprays let homeowners cut outdoor water use by roughly 50% while keeping the grass green.
Verdi
Verdi is a Vancouver-based agtech company building affordable, retrofit-ready irrigation automation systems for orchards, vineyards, and specialty crop farms. Founded in 2020 by UBC Engineering Physics graduates Arthur Chen and Roman Kozak, the company makes wireless IoT controllers and soil moisture sensors that install in minutes on existing irrigation infrastructure. Its AI-powered platform gives farmers real-time monitoring, leak detection, variable rate irrigation, and fertigation control from a mobile app - delivering documented results of up to 70% water savings, 90% labor reduction, and 10-20% yield increases. Backed by $9.5M total funding including a $6.5M CAD seed round in May 2025, Verdi counts E&J Gallo, Arterra Wines, and UC Davis among its customers, with 16,000+ acres automated across North America.