Hydrosat acquires IrriWatch.
The acquired Dutch firm provides daily climate, crop, and irrigation updates to farmers in 62 countries.
Hydrosat plans to begin gathering thermal and multispectral infrared data via satellite next year. At its core, though, HydroSat is not a space company but a climate-technology company, Hydrosat CEO Pieter Fossel told SpaceNews.
“With this IrriWatch platform, we’re able to make on-the-ground impacts around climate metrics for the first time, We can point to examples of how customers using this product based on thermal satellite insights are able to reduce water use. And in a lot of parts of the world, reducing water use means less electricity for pumping water out of the ground and operating mechanized center pivot irrigation systems.”
Daily Updates
IrriWatch was founded in 2019 by Wim Bastiaanssen, an expert on remote sensing and water resource management. The company feeds imagery and data, much of it provided by thermal sensors on government satellites, into proprietary algorithms to gauge leaf and soil temperatures, soil moisture content, water consumption and agricultural production. IrriWatch also measures leaf nitrogen content to improve fertilizer management, provides carbon sequestration analysis and delivers “hyper-local” weather forecasts to farmers every morning, Bastiaanssen said, when Hydrosat thermal data begins flowing into the IrriWatch platform.
“I will have more frequent, better quality thermal pictures. With that, I can do better calculations.”
Bastiaanssen also is enthusiastic about working with Hydrosat’s marketing, communications and client-satisfaction personnel.
That connection is vital, Bastiaanssen said, because farmers need data and guidance.
Significant Milestone
Hydrosat announced $20 million in investments and government grants in April.
Hydrosat was founded in 2017 to provide thermal data as well as products for data customers.
In addition, both Hydrosat and IrriWatch;
“Share a common vision of delivering geospatial-based insights to the agriculture community to help farmers grow more food with less water.”
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