Out of all the industries that stand to benefit from the new types of connected devices entering the market these days, few have more to look forward to than the agriculture sector. Aerial survey drones are making it possible to spot weeds and other pests before they can spread, while on-site weather stations are facilitating a better understanding of operating conditions. An Israeli startup called CropX Ltd now wants to add high-precision soil sensors to the farmer’s wishlist as well with the help of a new $1 million investment courtesy of manufacturing giants Robert Bosch GmbH and Flextronics International Ltd.

The cash infusion rounds out the Series A financing round that the outfit announced last June, which attracted $9 million from Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors and several other big-name backers in its first leg. CropX will use the capital to raise awareness about the new iteration of its moisture sensor that is debuting in conjunction with today’s funding, which is designed to help farm operators measure how much irrigation is required for their fields. After a four-minute installation process that the startup says is the shortest in the industry, the screw-like device starts sending real-time water measurements to a cloud environment where they’re analyzed for useful insights.

According to CropX’s website, the procedure involves blending the information with telemetry from the other sensors in a field and then overlaying the combined dataset on soil maps using a special patent-pending method. The startup can use either publicly-available surveys from the U.S. Department of Agriculture or custom charts supplied directly by the farmer depending on which is most up-to-date. Once all is said and done, its service displays the precise amount of water needed to irrigate every major field patch. It’s also able to send out mobile notifications when a certain parcel of land requires some extra attention.

CropX claims that its technology can help reduce irrigation requirements by up to a third, thereby reducing operating expenses while eliminating potential excesses that might hinder crop growth. That adds up to a lot of conserved water across the 20 major farms currently using its sensors, savings that are only poised to increase as the startup works to increase adoption. The relatively low price of its service ($220 per year per device) should also make its value proposition appealing to golf courses and larger private estates that are likewise under pressure to cut back their consumption, which increases the long-term conversation potential even further. 

Photo via CropX