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.

The Basics

• Industry: Deeptech, Envirotech

• Headquarters: El Segundo, CA ⚙️

• Year founded: 2023

• Employee count: 5

• Investors: Long Journey, 1517, Tamarack Global, Starship, Garry Tan, Austin Hubbard, Hummingbird, 1528 Investments*

• Amount raised: $1.54M pre-seed

• Currently raising: $3.2M seed round is closed and oversubscribed

• 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

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• Fidelity for Startups is supporting the startup & venture capital community in a big way.

• Shoobx, their Cap Table platform, is the all-in-one tool that will help founders prepare for their next round of funding.

• Shoobx gives founders access to seed stage capital, equity scenario modeling, and premier support to generate, execute & store legal documents.

  • Plus as a Bulletpitch reader you get exclusive perks.

• If you are a founder working on a startup from inception to IPO, Fidelity has strategies for you.

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

• Weather Modification, Inc 

• RHS Consulting LTD

• NAWC Inc

• Selerys  

📌 Bulletin Board

• 🗞This week in venture: Carta, the $7B software company used by start-ups to track their investors, has been trying to trade its customers’ shares without consent.

  • If you are a founder who is looking for an alternative platform check out Fidelity Shoobx.*

• 💡The innovation situation: This app has created a two-sided marketplace to let restaurants and coffee shops charge the public to use the bathroom…

This is sponsored content*

🗳 Cast Your Vote

Last Week Month Today

• The results are in: Neatsy, an AI-powered app that transforms your smartphone into a tool for muscle pain diagnosis, recovery tracking, and telehealth enablement, was narrowly favored by readers.

• Subscriber feedback: “While Neatsy could redefine the future of self-help and digital analysis, I’m curious to see if they can successfully source new clients and retain existing clients who may disconnect once cured.”

✍️ Written by Brett | Designed and edited by Jesse

🗣 SHARE THIS FEATURE 🔍 EXPLORE PAST FEATURES 🎙 PITCH US 📢 ADVERTISE