Instacrops will demo its water-saving, crop-boosting AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 | TechCrunch
Key Takeaways
- Agriculture is a major consumer of global fresh water, using 70% worldwide.
- Instacrops, a Chilean startup, pivoted from IoT hardware to AI software to optimize farm water use.
- The company uses LLM models to analyze over 80 parameters and advise farmers on irrigation, cutting water use by up to 30% and increasing yields by 20%.
- Instacrops communicates advisories via mobile apps, with a strong focus on integrating with WhatsApp.
- The startup is scheduled to present its technology at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco.
Agriculture accounts for 70% of worldwide fresh water usage, a critical issue in countries like Chile, where Instacrops founder Mario Bustamante is based. Instacrops, which is set to present at TechCrunch Disrupt, initially focused on IoT sensors for frost warnings but pivoted to software centered on water optimization as hardware became commoditized. The company now leverages advanced LLM models to ingest 80+ data points, including satellite imagery, to advise farmers on precise irrigation timing. This AI-driven approach has enabled Instacrops to reduce water use by up to 30% and increase crop yields by 20% across 260 farms. The startup communicates advisories through mobile apps, prioritizing WhatsApp for its universality, and can even directly control advanced irrigation systems. Instacrops, which was part of Y Combinator's summer 2021 batch, charges an annual fee per hectare for its insights, focusing primarily on high-value crops in Latin America.
