Instacrops to Showcase AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
The Critical Role of Water in Agriculture and a Novel AI Solution
Agriculture represents a significant consumer of global freshwater resources, accounting for 70% of all freshwater utilized worldwide. In certain nations, such as India and Chile, this figure can exceed 90%.
Instacrops: An AI-Driven Approach to Water Conservation
Mario Bustamante, a resident of Chile, personally experiences the challenges posed by water scarcity. He shared with TechCrunch, “The lack of water is a substantial concern in this region.”
Bustamante believes that artificial intelligence holds the key to substantially reducing water consumption in agricultural practices globally. His company, Instacrops, initially focused on deploying Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors to alert farmers to potential frost damage.
However, as the cost of IoT hardware decreased, the company strategically shifted its focus to software development and optimizing water usage.
Significant Results and Expansion
Currently, Instacrops is assisting 260 farms in decreasing their water usage by up to 30%, while simultaneously boosting crop yields by as much as 20%.
The company is a participant in Startup Battlefield and is scheduled to present at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco later this month.
From Hardware to AI: A Transformative Shift
The transition from a hardware-centric model to an AI-driven approach fundamentally altered the company’s operations. This change enabled Instacrops to function with a leaner team and process a significantly larger volume of data.
“We are currently processing approximately 15 million data points every hour, a volume that previously represented an entire year’s worth of data nearly a decade ago,” Bustamante explained. “We are achieving cost reductions, streamlining our team, and maximizing impact with fewer resources.”
Data-Driven Irrigation Advice
Instacrops can integrate with existing farm networks or install new IoT sensors to gather data and provide farmers with precise irrigation recommendations.
The startup’s Large Language Models (LLM) analyze over 80 parameters, including soil moisture levels, humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, crop yield data, and NDVI – a metric indicating plant productivity derived from satellite imagery.
These recommendations are delivered directly to farmers via their mobile devices. Instacrops offers a chatbot application, but also provides integration with WhatsApp.
“We anticipate that within the next year, WhatsApp will become our primary communication channel, as it is a universally accessible tool for farmers,” Bustamante stated.
For farms with more advanced technological infrastructure, Instacrops can directly control irrigation systems.
Focus on High-Value Crops in Latin America
Instacrops concentrates on high-value crops cultivated in Latin America, including apples, avocados, blueberries, almonds, and cherries.
Farmers subscribe to an annual fee based on the area of farmland (per hectare) to access Instacrops’ irrigation insights.
Investment and Recognition
The startup participated in the Y Combinator Summer 2021 program and has secured investments from SVG Ventures and Genesis Ventures.
To discover more about Instacrops and numerous other innovative startups, attend TechCrunch Disrupt, scheduled for October 27-29 in San Francisco.