Editor's note: In our 2024 Startups to Watch feature, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times present startups and founders building groundbreaking products and companies in the Bay Area. Lumo is one of 17 we profiled this year — to read more about our mission and the other startups we're featuring, click here.
To meet the needs of the farms of the future and help California conserve water, Lumo has designed a smart irrigation system that uses wireless, battery-powered valves that can detect leaks and optimize water usage. The company is seeking to modernize farms across the world and bring a level of precision to water usage not possible in the past.
About Lumo
Year founded: 2022
CEO: Devon Wright
Founders: Henry Halimi, Bennett Fitzgibbon, Devon Wright, John Hinnegan
What it does: Creates a smart wireless irrigation control device
HQ: Santa Rosa
Employees: 26 employees
Total funding: $3.72 million
How did Lumo’s product come about and how does it work?
Henry Halimi: The standards in the agriculture industry are surprisingly primitive, prior to our introduction of the Lumo device, because almost everything they’ve done was with manual valves. They never successfully could make these systems automated, because they were using wired systems. The reason I got hooked on it was the fact that compared to the standards at residential and industrial, agriculture was very primitive. And then I started applying solid technologies that were proven in the other segments of the water industry and consolidate those into a battery-driven, wireless operation without running wires.
What has the response been in initial pilot tests and what’s next?
Halimi: Top winemakers saw substantial cost and labor savings, with improved yield and quality, leading them to request expanding Lumo’s system across more of their land. Lumo is ramping up manufacturing to serve these early adopters in 2024 while developing an open platform for incorporating third-party data sources.
Why did Lumo target the wine industry first?
Halimi: The wine industry sells a high-value crop and has strong, educated managers, making them more open to trying new innovations, while Napa Valley's concentration of elite winemakers allowed for extensive early pilot testing.
