Company Performance Metrics
Athena IR-Tech, a company based in Adelaide, Australia, provides a solution, Transp-IR, an infrared-based technology that interrogates the plant on whether it needs a drink. The system measures plant transpiration and notifies farmers when their crops need to be irrigation based on whether the plant is transpiring at an optimal level. This method
of watching the daily output of how well the plant is transpiring directly correlates to how well it is using the water available to it and, therefore, allows us to maximise the water use efficiency of the crop without compromising crop yield or quality.
The Athena IR-Tech Transp-IR solution maximises water use efficiency through proximal, infrared transpiration monitoring and notifies the grower when the crop’s transpiration rate has dropped below the optimal level for the current growth stage, therefore, giving the plant only the water, it needs to efficiently develop its crop. Unlike other irrigation monitoring technologies, which typically record many data points and, at best, will provide a generic indication of water availability or plant water status, our solution lets farmers know exactly when their crop requires irrigation by notifying them that their crop is transpiring below the defined optimal irrigation range for their specific crop.
The market opportunity for Athena in Australia and the US is approximately AU$4.3B with the US market entry point of the 11 counties in the California Central Valley across the listed crops being approximately AU$275M. The Australian market opportunity for Athena is approximately AU$217M.
Athena is creating a business development flywheel to drive the growth engine amplified by automation and customers who want to push the technology. Because of the high percentage of previously sponsored customers returning as paid customers and buying more subscriptions, Athena is going to leverage farmers that are considered early adopters in large farms to provide them with a small number of units to try for a growing season for free for the first year. This strategy will be complemented with an agronomy and viticulture network that will directly support the success of these customers. In addition, partnerships with agriculture resellers such as Nutrien, irrigation services providers and horticulture and viticulture consultants who manage multiple customer farms will be pursued.
Athena IR-Tech has a strong management team led by a CEO with over 35 years of experience including roles as a partner at Accenture and General Manager at companies such as Schneider Electric and Constellation Wines. The founders are well respected research scientists in their fields of computer engineering, viticulture, plant water status sensing and plant physiology.
