The Ledger of Grit: Jairo Trad - When Drought Becomes Data
How a Computer Engineer from Córdoba Turned Argentina's Water Crisis Into a Global Marketplace Where Conservation Pays
Captain Startup
13 min read


The soil cracks in Córdoba Province don't announce themselves. They appear slowly, deepening with each rainless month until the earth splits wide enough to swallow hope.
Jairo Trad knew these cracks intimately. As the grandson of a small landowner in Argentina's Córdoba province, he witnessed water scarcity firsthand—watching successive droughts return like clockwork to the agricultural heartland that produces much of Argentina's food exports.
But while studying computer engineering at the National University of Córdoba between 2005 and 2012, Jairo saw something others missed: a problem that no one was solving, in an industry that consumed 80% of Latin America's water.
"Agriculture is responsible for 75% to 85% of total water use in Latin America," Jairo would later explain to The Guardian. "So if you want to work with water [security], you have to work with agriculture."
This is the story of how Jairo Trad and three co-founders built Kilimo—transforming drought from crisis into currency, and proving that sometimes the most valuable technology comes from understanding a local problem deeply enough to create a global solution.
Chapter 1: The Education Years
Córdoba, Argentina, 2005-2012
While Jairo Trad was earning his computer engineering degree at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina was still recovering from the worst economic crisis in its recent history.
The 2001-2002 collapse had left deep scars. Banks had frozen deposits in what became known as the "corralito"—triggering riots that killed 39 people. The peso, pegged one-to-one with the dollar for a decade, lost 70% of its value within months. Unemployment hit 23%. Poverty reached 57%.
By the time Jairo graduated in 2012, an entire generation of Argentinians had learned that institutions could fail, that systems could collapse, and that trust was something earned transaction by transaction.
But drought didn't care about economic collapse. The crops still demanded water. The fields still cracked. And farmers still had to make irrigation decisions that could mean the difference between profit and loss.
Jairo's technical education gave him the tools to build software. His background gave him something more valuable: understanding of agriculture's fundamental challenge in water-scarce regions.
Chapter 2: The Early Career
2010-2014
Before founding Kilimo, Jairo Trad built the technical foundation that would later prove essential.
In 2010, while still a student, he worked as a Hardware Developer at the Digital Communications Laboratory at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, implementing embedded systems inside FPGAs to process network packets.
In 2011, he co-founded his first company: INSUS Ingeniería Sustentable, focused on sustainable engineering solutions. The venture taught him about building companies in emerging markets, though it wasn't the breakthrough he was seeking.
From 2012 to 2014, Jairo worked as a Python developer at various companies—Neosur, Sistemas Lis, and as a freelancer on Toptal. He was learning software development, but his attention kept returning to the problem he'd grown up watching: water scarcity in agriculture.
The statistics were undeniable. Climate change was causing more intense, frequent, and longer droughts. Agriculture consumed 72% of global freshwater. And yields for major crops were expected to decrease by 17% globally by 2050 due to water stress.
In 2014, Jairo made his move.
Chapter 3: Four Co-Founders, One Mission
Córdoba, 2014
Jairo Trad didn't build Kilimo alone.
In 2014, he co-founded the company with three partners from Córdoba's technical community:
Juan Carlos Abdala (CTO) - Computer Engineer from the National University of Córdoba, with expertise in wireless sensor networks and satellite constellation simulations. Juan Carlos had co-founded INSUS with Jairo in 2011.
Rodrigo Tissera (COO & Head of Business Development) - Agricultural Engineer from the National University of Córdoba, specializing in training technical teams and understanding farming operations.
Tatiana Malvasio (COO) - BA in Social Communication with experience in managing social impact organizations.
The founding team represented a crucial combination: deep technical expertise (Jairo and Juan Carlos), agricultural knowledge (Rodrigo), and operational experience in impact organizations (Tatiana).
"Kilimo's founders had a shared passion for agriculture and technology and wanted to create a solution that would address the critical issue of drought in the industry," according to investment documentation from Xperiment, an early investor.
Their mission was straightforward: help farmers reduce irrigation and increase water use efficiency through big data.
The challenge was convincing farmers—who had been burned by Argentina's economic collapse and were skeptical of new systems—that software could solve a problem they'd been fighting for generations.
Chapter 4: The Technology Foundation
Building Ground Truth
What Kilimo built wasn't just software. It was knowledge infrastructure that couldn't be replicated quickly.
The company collected approximately 100,000 soil samples from 45 crop varieties across various countries, predominantly in South America. These samples were correlated with satellite imagery of farm fields, creating a practical solution for monitoring soil moisture levels remotely.
"You have to sit close to the ground to understand how things behave in that specific soil in that specific country," Jairo explained to TechCrunch in 2024.
This ground-truth data became Kilimo's moat. Other companies could launch satellites. Other companies could build machine learning models. But no other company had spent years learning how soil moisture behaves in Mendoza versus Santiago, how different crops respond to irrigation timing, how altitude affects water needs in Peru's highlands.
Kilimo's platform combined:
Satellite data and imagery to monitor farm fields remotely
Meteorological data for weather patterns and predictions
Ground-truth soil samples to validate and calibrate models
AI and machine learning to generate irrigation recommendations
Mobile delivery to reach farmers with actionable information
The result was site-specific irrigation recommendations that could help farmers reduce water usage by up to 20%.
Chapter 5: Early Traction
2014-2018
Kilimo's early growth happened farmer by farmer, field by field.
The company started in Argentina, then expanded to other South American markets where water scarcity and agricultural production intersected: Chile, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay.
By 2018, Kilimo had achieved notable traction:
Serving farmers across 6 countries in Latin America
Customers ranging from large corporations like Driscoll's to small-scale farmers
Helping farmers reduce water usage by approximately 20%
The business model was straightforward: farmers paid a subscription fee for Kilimo's irrigation management service. The platform provided recommendations on when and how much to water, based on real-time data analysis.
For farmers, the value proposition was clear: save water, save money on pumping costs, reduce risk of over- or under-irrigation.
But Jairo and his co-founders were already seeing a bigger opportunity.
Chapter 6: The Marketplace Innovation
2018-2022
The breakthrough insight came from observing how corporations talked about water sustainability.
Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Coca-Cola, and Google were making water pledges. They wanted to be "water neutral" or "water positive." But they had no way to actually achieve those goals at scale.
"If you have a $200 million bottling plant and you don't have water next week, there's a lot of money at risk," Jairo told TechCrunch. "So we started talking with people and trying to put a value on water."
Kilimo created something unprecedented: a marketplace connecting farmers who could save water with corporations who needed to offset their water consumption.
The business model was elegant:
Farmers use Kilimo's irrigation management tools (paying a subscription fee)
Kilimo helps farmers reduce water usage through better irrigation timing
The saved water is verified using the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) methodology
Kilimo sells verified water savings to corporations as "water credits"
Farmers receive a share of the proceeds—typically earning 20-40% more than they paid Kilimo
"The concept is kind of like carbon markets but specifically tied to water savings," Jairo explained to AgFunder News.
Crucially, water credits only work within the same watershed. You can't save water in Chile and count it toward consumption in California. This geographic specificity meant Kilimo had to build operations watershed by watershed, understanding local regulations and establishing local partnerships.
In 2022, Kilimo created a new division called Climate Adaptation specifically to scale these water offset projects. The initiative won recognition at the World Economic Forum in Davos, earning the Enterprise Global Freshwater Challenge award.
"El propósito de Kilimo es transformar el valor del agua en la producción de alimentos," Jairo told LA NACION. "Empezamos haciendo a los productores más eficientes, ahora estamos literalmente pudiendo ponerle un precio a cuidar el agua. Es algo que no existía en agricultura a nivel mundial."
[The purpose of Kilimo is to transform the value of water in food production. We started by making farmers more efficient, now we can literally put a price on water conservation. This didn't exist in agriculture globally.]
Chapter 7: Corporate Partnerships
Breaking Through
The water credits model attracted exactly the partners Kilimo needed.
By 2023, the company had established partnerships with major corporations:
Microsoft
Intel
Coca-Cola
Google
Amazon
All are companies with massive water footprints—data centers consume enormous amounts of water for cooling, beverage production requires water at scale.
But Jairo pushed back against the corporate sustainability sector's narrow focus.
"Most corporate sustainability goals tend to focus heavily on carbon emissions reductions without giving as much weight to other areas such as biodiversity and water," he told AgFunder News in 2025. "Three key ecosystems are tied together—biodiversity, water and carbon—and we have to think to the three of them."
He called this "carbon blindness"—the tendency of companies to focus exclusively on carbon reduction while ignoring interconnected environmental challenges.
"We have to abandon this carbon blindness," Jairo insisted.
Kilimo's pitch wasn't just about meeting water targets. It was about recognizing that saving water in agriculture also reduces energy consumption (pumping water requires electricity), reduces fertilizer runoff into rivers, and supports healthier watersheds and greater biodiversity.
"Each company alone is not going to make a difference," Jairo said. "But if you can leverage corporations plus government plus development bank entities, there you start making a difference."
Chapter 8: Scale and Recognition
2022-2024
By 2024, Kilimo had become a significant player in agricultural water management:
Operations:
Serving 2,000+ farmers across 7+ countries
Operating in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay
Expanding into the United States (California) and exploring European markets
Team of agronomists, data experts, and sustainability specialists
On-the-ground presence in the most critical watersheds in Latin America
Impact:
Helping farmers reduce water usage by up to 20%
72 billion liters of water saved (as of 2024)
More water than Buenos Aires consumes in four months
First company to create a water offset market in Latin America
Recognition:
World Economic Forum Global Freshwater Challenge winner (2023)
Jairo recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year by the Argentine Government
Jairo selected as member of the Global Shapers community (World Economic Forum)
Founding member of Open Data Córdoba NGO
Only African company (and one of few Latin American companies) on Y Combinator's top 50 earning startups list
Education & Community:
Kilimo Academy organized 90+ webinars
100+ technical experts from 5 countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Spain)
Building community of practice around efficient irrigation
Chapter 9: Funding and Growth
2018-2024
Kilimo's funding journey reflected growing investor confidence in water technology:
2018: First funding round led by Xperiment (Xpand Ventures) - $200,000
2022: Investment from Kamay Ventures
2024: Series A funding round - $7.5 million
Led by Emerald Technology Ventures
Participation from iThink VC, Kamay Ventures, Salkantay Ventures, The Yield Lab Latam
Total raised: Approximately $7.8 million across 7 funding rounds from 14 investors
The Series A funding enabled Kilimo to expand operations beyond Latin America and invest in technology infrastructure.
"Xperiment recognized the potential of Kilimo and its innovative approach to addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing agriculture—water management," according to the firm's investment documentation. "The team's unique character and strong background in data science, GIS, and irrigation made them a strong fit to execute on their ambitious plans."
Chapter 10: The American Expansion
California and Beyond
By 2024, Kilimo was expanding into the United States, starting with California's Central Valley—one of the world's most productive agricultural regions and one of the most water-stressed.
"It currently works throughout South America, including in Argentina, where it is based, and Mexico," TechCrunch reported in June 2024. The company was eyeing expansion into the Southwestern United States and Europe.
The American market represented both opportunity and challenge. Agricultural communities in California have different relationships with technology than farmers in Córdoba. Regulatory frameworks are more complex. Water rights are more legally intricate.
But the fundamental problem was the same: agriculture consuming vast amounts of water in regions facing increasing scarcity.
"Kilimo can then remotely monitor farm fields and advise farmers on their water use," TechCrunch explained. "It charges farmers a fee for the service, and if they're able to successfully cut their water use, Kilimo can sell the surplus water to a company that needs it in the same watershed, sharing a portion of the proceeds with the farmer."
The expansion into developed markets validated that Kilimo's approach transcended geography—that their model worked not just in emerging economies but in technologically sophisticated markets with complex regulatory environments.
Chapter 11: The Verification Infrastructure
Making Water Savings Real
One of Kilimo's crucial innovations was solving the verification problem.
For water credits to have value, the savings had to be real, measurable, and auditable. Kilimo achieved this through:
The Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA) methodology:
Used by international organizations
Proven effective at scale across Latin America
Provides standardized measurement of water savings
Independent audits:
Third-party verification of volumetric benefits
Regular auditing to ensure accuracy
Transparent reporting to corporate partners
Success metrics:
35% reduction in water use in strategic crops
Measurable impact in specific watersheds
Documented environmental and economic benefits
This verification infrastructure was essential for corporate buyers. Companies couldn't claim water neutrality based on vague promises—they needed verified, auditable data showing real water savings in specific watersheds.
"We generate scalable impact that results in both environmental and economic benefits," the company explains on their website. "We support alignment with environmental and social regulations, strengthening responsible management."
Chapter 12: The Technical Depth
What Makes Kilimo Work
Behind Kilimo's simple value proposition—help farmers save water—lies sophisticated technical infrastructure:
Data Collection:
100,000+ soil samples from 45 crop varieties
Continuous satellite imagery monitoring
Real-time meteorological data integration
Ground sensors and validation
Analysis:
AI and machine learning models
Crop-specific irrigation requirements
Soil-type specific moisture modeling
Weather pattern prediction
Delivery:
Site-specific irrigation recommendations
Prescriptive guidance for each field
Mobile-accessible platforms
Dashboard for monitoring and management
Verification:
Volumetric measurement of water savings
Third-party auditing protocols
VWBA methodology compliance
Transparent reporting systems
The technical sophistication was necessary because agriculture isn't simple—it's incredibly diverse. A corn field in Argentina requires different irrigation approaches than a coffee plantation in Peru or a vineyard in Chile.
"We have experience in the most water-stressed watersheds in the region," Kilimo states on their website. "Our technology ensures measurable and auditable solutions."
Chapter 13: The Team Evolution
From Four to Many
What started as four co-founders in Córdoba grew into a substantial organization:
Leadership Team (as of 2024):
Jairo Trad - CEO & Co-Founder
Juan Carlos Abdala - CTO & Co-Founder
Tatiana Malvasio - VP of Culture & Co-Founder
Rodrigo Tissera - VP of Agronomy Engagement & Co-Founder
VP of Climate Solutions (Economist with MBA, experienced in finance and agribusiness)
VP of Climate Adaptation (BA in International Relations, 8 years scaling impact organizations)
VP of Finance (Executive MBA and Industrial Engineer)
Country managers in multiple markets
Team Composition:
Agronomists with deep farming expertise
Data scientists and engineers
Sustainability and water specialists
On-the-ground presence in critical watersheds
101-250 employees (as of 2024)
The team structure reflects Kilimo's dual nature: a technology company that must understand agriculture deeply, and an agricultural company that leverages sophisticated technology.
Chapter 14: The Broader Context
Why Kilimo Matters Now
Kilimo emerged at exactly the right moment in history.
Water Crisis Acceleration: According to the UN, agriculture accounts for 72% of global freshwater usage. As climate change accelerates, droughts are becoming more frequent and severe. Most of the world will be living with water stress in coming years.
Agricultural Productivity Pressure: Yields for major crops are expected to decrease by 17% globally by 2050 due to drought and water stress. The world needs to produce more food with less water.
Corporate Sustainability Pressure: Companies face increasing pressure from investors, regulators, and consumers to address environmental impact. Water scarcity is moving from "concern" to "crisis" on corporate risk assessments.
Technology Maturation: Satellite imagery, AI/ML models, and mobile connectivity have reached the point where sophisticated agricultural management is possible at scale. What would have been impossible 20 years ago is now feasible.
Market Creation: Before Kilimo, there was no marketplace for water savings in agriculture. Farmers who conserved water received no compensation beyond reduced pumping costs. Corporations who wanted to offset water consumption had no mechanism to do so.
Kilimo didn't just build a product. They created a market.
Chapter 15: The Cultural Builder Pattern
What Captain Startup Observes
Jairo Trad's story fits a pattern that appears repeatedly in The Ledger of Grit: founders who don't escape their heritage—they encode it.
Local Knowledge as Competitive Advantage: Growing up in Córdoba Province, watching drought cycles, understanding agricultural economics—this wasn't obstacle to overcome. It was knowledge that couldn't be learned from market research.
Crisis as Teacher: Argentina's economic collapse taught Jairo something Silicon Valley engineers don't learn: that trust is earned through proof, not promises. That farmers burned by systemic failure need evidence, not enthusiasm.
Staying Home: Jairo could have left Argentina after university. With a computer engineering degree, he could have pursued opportunities in the United States or Europe. Instead, he stayed—because the problem he needed to solve was in Córdoba.
Multi-Disciplinary Thinking: Kilimo succeeded because it required expertise in agronomy, computer engineering, data science, and business model innovation. No single discipline could solve the problem.
Patient Building: From founding in 2014 to Series A funding in 2024 took ten years. Ten years of collecting soil samples, building farmer relationships, proving the technology worked, creating verification methodologies.
This wasn't a company built for quick exits. This was infrastructure for the future of agriculture.
Epilogue: From Local Problem to Global Solution
There's a remarkable trajectory in Kilimo's story.
It started with a grandson of a small landowner in Córdoba Province, watching drought crack the soil.
It became four co-founders in Argentina's second-largest city, building technology to help farmers irrigate more efficiently.
It evolved into a marketplace connecting farmers across Latin America with corporations across the world.
It transformed into infrastructure for addressing one of the 21st century's defining challenges: producing food in an era of water scarcity.
"The purpose of Kilimo is to transform the value of water in food production," Jairo told LA NACION. "This didn't exist in agriculture globally."
The innovation wasn't just technical. It was economic and social.
Kilimo proved that conservation could be profitable. That farmers could earn money by saving water, not just by using it. That corporations could achieve sustainability goals through verified, measurable impact rather than vague commitments.
Most importantly, Kilimo demonstrated that the best solutions to global challenges often come from people who understand local problems deeply enough to create universal approaches.
The soil still cracks in Córdoba Province. Droughts still arrive with regularity. Agriculture still consumes enormous amounts of water.
But now, there's infrastructure for making better decisions. Data where there was once only intuition. Markets where there was once only waste. Value in conservation where there was once only cost.
And occasionally, a computer engineer from Córdoba gets to transform an entire industry by remembering that sometimes the most valuable technology comes from understanding a problem that won't let you go.
Captain Startup writes: "I've documented founders who built rockets, reformed healthcare systems, and revolutionized transportation. But Jairo Trad and his co-founders may have accomplished something even more fundamental: they proved that scarcity can create markets, that conservation can be profitable, and that local knowledge applied with technical sophistication can solve global challenges. In an industry built on extraction, they demonstrated that restoration has value. That insight could change everything."
Build with intent. ⚓
Watch the full story: The Ledger of Grit - Jairo Trad
Read more Cultural Builder stories at chaiandcode.shop
A Chai & Code Production
Sources:
TechCrunch: "Exclusive: Kilimo helps farmers save water and get paid for it" (June 2024)
The Guardian: "Low-carbon milk to AI irrigation: tech startups powering Latin America's green revolution" (April 2024)
AgFunder News: "Argentina's Kilimo on developing a water savings market in Latin America" (January 2025)
LA NACION: "Una startup cordobesa del agro fue premiada por el Foro Económico Mundial" (January 2023)
World Bank Connect4Impact and WB Water Communities profiles
Kilimo official website (kilimo.com)
Crunchbase, The Org, and other business databases
Xperiment investment documentation
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