About Driptech

In the spring of 2008, three Stanford graduate students from the schools of business, engineering, and design joined forces in a course called Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability. The team traveled to Ethiopia to see where they could apply their talents to help, arriving in the middle of the worst drought Ethiopia had experienced in 20 years. The farmers they met had no means to grow crops with the scarce water resources available. The drip irrigation products that were locally available were too expensive for most farmers and seldom worked properly. These farmers needed better, cheaper, more effective ways to use their meager water supplies efficiently.

The values advanced by B Lab and B Corporations are ones that are important to us and also to our stakeholders. By becoming a B Corporation, we are better able to broadcast our commitment to those values and hopefully set an example of social and environmental responsibility in our community.

The team returned to the Stanford d.school and invented a new manufacturing technology that makes clean, consistent holes in super-cheap plastic tubing. The resulting product works better and more reliably than the competition at 2-5x less cost. With this, Driptech was incorporated to manufacture and sell drip irrigation tubing for developing markets across the globe.

The Change We Seek®

Their mission is to alleviate poverty by creating extremely affordable, water efficient irrigation solutions for small-plot farmers in developing nations.

• Driptech is focused on providing irrigation solutions for subsistence and small-plot farmers. Their target customer is a farmer who can feed their families with the food they produce, but have little leftover to sell in the marketplace for money. Between hauling water and working the land, they typically are only able to cultivate 1/2 an acre of crops, earning an income equivalent to about $2 per day. These farmers want to produce more crops to increase their income, but they have 2 big issues to overcome: an inefficient use of limited water resources, and access to capital.

• Our fundamental belief is that by treating the poor as customers rather than aid recipients we can avoid unsustainable activities as a company. Only products that fulfill a real need will be accepted by the market. As a sustainable, social venture providing tangible products, our efficacy is measured by the sale and direct impact of these products.

Driptech Inc.

• Industry: Other
• Product/Services: Drip irrigation for small farmers
• Location: Mountain View, CA
• Ownership: Private
• http://www.driptech.com