What croptide does

Croptide is a New Zealand-based agritech startup founded in 2021 and headquartered in Napier, operating in the precision-horticulture segment. The company developed internet-enabled sensors that measure water and nutrient status directly from plants (at the stem level rather than via soil proxies) and transmit real-time readings to growers. Its product architecture combines in-field hardware sensors with internet connectivity so that fruit and wine grape growers can continuously monitor plant water and nutrient status, with the stated objective of improving irrigation decisions and water-use efficiency in the face of climate change-induced water scarcity. Use cases emphasized in the company materials include water-saving trials, nutrient data collection, and plant health tracking. Pricing was not publicly disclosed and the gtm_motion is described as enterprise field sales with pilots running in New Zealand's key wine regions.

The business model is structured as a recurring subscription service built around the hardware sensor base, targeting enterprise fruit and wine grape growers in New Zealand. The company signed pilot projects with major New Zealand horticulture companies and conducted trials with wine grape growers focused on water efficiency. Total disclosed funding is approximately NZD $1.17M, anchored by a NZD $1M pre-seed round on 2021-12-14 led by Icehouse Ventures with participation from K1W1 and Masfen Group, supplemented by Callaghan Innovation R&D grants between March 2021 and July 2023. The company is small (1-10 employees) and was led by a four-person founding and executive team: Finn Brown (Founder & COO), Hamish Penny (Founder), Tom Biggs (CTO), and Elisha Milmine (Chief of Staff). The company operates only in New Zealand, holds no disclosed patents or trademarks, and its website (croptide.com) was observed displaying a "Website is closed" notice, indicating the company may have ceased active operations.

Name

croptide

Legal name

Croptide

Website

https://croptide.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Croptide is a New Zealand agritech startup that built internet-enabled sensors to deliver real-time plant-level water and nutrient data to fruit and wine grape growers for irrigation and water-use efficiency.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Precision Agriculture Sensors

SIC

Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823)

akta.pro primary industry

IoT Farm Sensors & Edge Devices (Soil, Weather, Crop, Water) (AFAAAFAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Precision Sensing & Monitoring (Soil/Weather Stations, In-Field Sensors, IoT) (AFAGALAB), In-Field Sensor Hardware (Soil Moisture/Nutrient, Weather, Canopy Sensors) (AFABAMAA), Irrigation Monitoring & Sensors (Flow/Pressure Meters, Soil Moisture, Water Quality Sensors) (AFABAHAJ), Field Mapping, GIS & Digital Agronomy (Zoning, Prescription Maps, Yield Maps, Spatial Analytics) (AFAGALAG)

Keywords

• Plant water sensing
• Precision agriculture sensors
• Agritech water monitoring
• Crop water intelligence
• Horticulture irrigation sensors

Headquarters

HQ city

Napier

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations

Revenue model

1. Water Monitoring Services: Internet-enabled sensor-based water and nutrient monitoring services for fruit and wine grape growers, providing real-time data to improve water use efficiency.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Croptide develops and sells internet-enabled sensors that attach directly to plants to capture real-time water and nutrient data. The company supplies this plant-level monitoring hardware and the associated data service to fruit and wine grape growers, enabling them to make irrigation and crop-management decisions based on direct plant measurements rather than soil or environmental proxies.

Product overview

Croptide offers a single unified product: internet-enabled water sensing technology designed for fruit and wine grape growers. The system consists of sensors placed in fields that collect water and nutrient data directly from plants and transmit it to growers via the internet. The company conducts pilot trials with major horticulture companies in New Zealand's key wine regions to help address climate change-induced water scarcity.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Croptide Plant Water and Nutrient Sensor Internet-enabled sensor hardware that attaches directly to plants to capture real-time water and nutrient data, transmitting readings to commercial fruit and wine grape growers to support irrigation and crop-management decisions.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Phytech: Provides plant-based IoT sensors that monitor plant water status directly to optimize irrigation, the same direct-from-plant sensing approach Croptide uses for growers.
• Saturas: Develops stem water potential sensors embedded in the plant trunk for precision irrigation, closely mirroring Croptide's stem-level water sensing technology.
• FloraPulse: Makes microchip stem water potential sensors for vineyards and orchards, directly comparable to Croptide's plant-stem water monitoring for wine grape growers.
• Tule Technologies: Offers in-field sensing of actual crop water use (evapotranspiration) for irrigation decisions in vineyards and orchards, serving the same water-efficiency use case and grower base.
• CropX: Provides soil and crop sensors with an agronomic platform for irrigation and nutrient management, overlapping with Croptide's water and nutrient monitoring for growers.
• Arable: Sells in-field IoT devices measuring plant, weather and water data with analytics for growers, comparable to Croptide's internet-enabled sensing and decision support.
• Hortau: Provides soil-tension-based irrigation management sensors and platform for vineyards and orchards, targeting the same water-efficiency outcomes for fruit and wine growers.

Broad incumbents

• Semios: Operates a large in-field IoT network for irrigation, climate and pest monitoring in permanent crops, overlapping Croptide's grower sensing focus at greater scale.

Emerging players

• Sensoterra: Makes wireless soil moisture sensors for irrigation optimization, a niche sensing player with partial overlap on Croptide's water-monitoring value proposition.
• Teralytic: Develops wireless soil probes measuring moisture and nutrients for precision agriculture, intersecting Croptide's water and nutrient sensing for growers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about croptide