The water crisis is one of the most complex challenges facing humanity. And the agricultural sector, as by far the largest consumer of water (70% of total withdrawals), will play a key role in this. 

Several years ago, a Chilean technology firm, WiseConn, saw an opportunity to offer solutions for more efficient water use in agriculture. Their solution collects data from the fields and stores it in the cloud, making it available to farmers to manage irrigation. They started in Chile with a focus on fruit farming, from there expanding into other markets with similar geographic conditions, such as California in the U.S., and certain areas of Mexico, Peru, and Spain. “Our goal is to provide farmers with certainty,”, says Cristobal Rivas, co-founder and CEO of WiseConn.

It has been a successful experience, to the point that in California they were able to outperform other tech companies focused on the same niche.

Now, WiseConn is preparing to take a big leap forward. It is in the midst of raising funding to scale up its technology across Asia, as Rivas points out, targeting new agricultural markets such as Brazil, Australia, and Europe. “It’s not just about growth; this involves development,” says Rivas. “We specialize in fruit growing, but that’s just a niche; the rest of the market isn’t fruit growing.”

The company is working to improve its product to tap into that huge market. “This goal goes hand in hand with what we do,”, says Rivas. “Everything is being irrigated with automated systems; there’s a demand in the market for these solutions.”

Since its inception, WiseConn has been dedicated to developing pure, cutting-edge technology. It combines hardware manufacturing with data storage and processing systems. “It’s cutting-edge technology, but it’s applicable to the Chilean context and, at the same time, developed with a global vision.”