ImpactAlpha, May 29 – Agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s fresh water and wastes much of it through evaporation and other irrigation system inefficiencies.
Brighton, Australia-based startup OneCrop makes a film that farmers lay on top of soil where crops are planted. The film, which is biodegradable, cuts water use and promotes crop growth by raising soil temperature and locking in moisture. The film works with a variety of crops and soil types, reduces water requirements by about 12% and improves yields, OneCrop says.
- Future food… OneCrop is getting $100,000 from the Future Food Asia Award, a competition for sustainable food and agriculture tech startups hosted by Singapore-based venture capital firm ID Capital.
- The runners up… Four other startups that participated in the competition—Singapore’s Alchemy Foodtech, India’s FIB-SOL Life Technologies, Korea’s PureSpace, and China’s Shenzhen Qianhai Xiaozao Technology—will share $50,000 in grant funding from Singapore’s business development agency, SPRING.
ID Capital launched Future Food Asia last year to support startups in Asia. “The agritech and foodtech landscape is very fragmented in Asia Pacific. There are very few VC funds that invest in these sorts of businesses,” founder Isabelle Decitre said.
