Rainmaker
Setting the Scene
Water scarcity poses a significant threat to regions like California, placing them on the brink of losing hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland to desertification.
Here are a few ways drought-like conditions affect various industries:
To keep farmland operational, farms pay hundreds of thousands in water overuse bills.
Insurance companies grapple with costs resulting from hurricane and wildfire damages.
Ski resorts deal with revenue loss from inadequate snowfall.
This week’s company is on a mission to keep earth habitable by revolutionizing cloud seeding to create partial rain.
In a Sentence
Rainmaker uses cloud seeding technology to help alleviate global water scarcity.
Cloud seeding: A method to induce and enhance precipitation in clouds by introducing specific chemical agents.
Technology: Rainmaker sends drones into the sky and uses its meteorological software to predict, analyze, and modify weather patterns to maximize the efficiency of cloud seeding.
Bulleted Version:
- Think of Rainmaker as nature's ultimate sprinkler system, utilizing meteorological software, drones, and a specialized nucleation agent to create rainfall. ☔️
The Basics
- Headquarters: El Segundo, CA ⚙️
- Employee Count: 5
- Investors:
Long Journey, 1517, Tamarack Global, Starship, Garry Tan, Austin Hubbard, Hummingbird,
- Funding amount: $1.54M pre-seed
- Business model: Contract based, with clients currently in beta for 60k/year. Once fully operational average yearly contract value will be around $200k-500k per client
- Early traction: First contract with California based, E W Merritt Farms
Due Diligence
WHAT WE LIKE
📈Market opportunity: The global demand for cloud seeding is expected to grow to a market size of nearly $212 billion by 2028.
In addition to farms, ski resorts, municipal governments, state governments, and even the Federal Bureau of Reclamation have shown they are willing to pay for cloud seeding.
✈️ Innovating an old practice: Since the 1950s, the two traditional modes of cloud seeding have been ground-based generators and airplanes, which are imprecise and rely on old practices.
Rainmaker’s product yields precision through its drone technology and weather tracking software, along with a more efficient nucleation agent.
💦 Environmental impact: Water scarcity in the US is transforming California's farmland into deserts and depleting the Ogallala Aquifer beneath the Great Plains, endangering the $92 billion agriculture industry and life west of the Mississippi.
While desalination (making sea water fresh) is one possible solution to combat scarcity, there is an uphill battle to get this to scale on a reasonable timeline.
POTENTIAL RISKS
🌎 Manipulating the weather: While the pressing challenges of water scarcity may outweigh this concern, there might be an ethical dilemma around manipulating natural processes.
😳 Commercialization: The primary obstacle in scaling this operation lies in factors like steep hardware costs and adhering to FAA regulations.
🔄 Rapid market growth: If cloud seeding becomes more mainstream, competitors may engage in improper practices to catch up to Rainmaker.
Founder Profile
Augustus Doricko, CEO: Previously founded and exited Terra Seco.
Comps
Why Rainmaker
By improving traditional cloud seeding methods with precise drone deployment, metrological software, and an upgraded nucleation agent, this company will be making it rain both literally and figuratively. 💸