Varigate
The world is running out of water. Demand for water continues to grow a staggering 60% every decade for the past fifty years, and supply is now hitting a brick wall: Within twelve years, over two thirds of the world is expected to experience shortage of water. Such water shortage has far reaching and imminent implications, since over 40% of the world’s food is provided by irrigated agriculture.
Varigate’s concept is simple. Land is not homogeneous, and hence water absorption and its availability to plants varies greatly across a field. Current irrigation systems waste a lot of water because they water fields evenly.
Varigate’s uniqueness and focus is on ‘listening to the ground’, and providing each part of a field exactly the right amount of water that it needs, at any given time.
Support Provided to Date:
Investment raising, Business Management Acquisition, Board Assignments,
New Zealand Investors:
MiG, Sparkbox, GD1
Founding team:
Isaac Entwich
CEO
A physician by training, Bentwich founded two Israeli companies that have both become world leaders in their respective fields. The first, Pegasus, was one of Israel’s first medical software success stories and was acquired for $15 million by HBOC (now McKessen) in 1995. His second, the biotech company Rosetta Genomics (NASDAQ:ROSG), is a world leader in its field and its subsidiary, Rosetta Green (TASE:RSTG) was recently acquired for $35 million by Monsanto (NYSE:MON, $55B).
Marcel Van Der Assum
Director
Appointed in 2000, Van Der Assum was the first CIO of Fonterra. He served in the role until 2005 when he became a Professional Director and Independent Advisor. His roles include Chairman of Voco Ltd and GreenButton Ltd, Director of Simpl Group Ltd, SYL Semantic Ltd, and Yonix Ltd, Partner in Lush Design Gallery, and an Advisory Board position with New Zealand Inland Revenue. GreenButton, SYL and Yonix are early stage companies addressing a global market from New Zealand. Marcel’s has a passion for innovative entrepreneurial companies, or larger organizations driving aspirational transformation.
Previous to his role at Fonterra, he was Managing Principal of Unisys New Zealand and held leadership roles in various global functions. He has worked across many industry sectors, government entities, and in most geographies. He is Board member of Angel HQ and Angel Associtation of NZ, and a member of Ice Angels, Institute of Directors and Business for Social Responsibility.
www.varigate.com
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