Jorge Heraud, the newly full-time CEO of TerraBlaster shared the following in a Linkedin post last week:
We’re rebranding to TerraBlaster, a reference to our revolutionary technology. It refers to our technology (developed by NASA for use on Mars) to “blast” the soil with lasers, break molecules into ions, and read soil composition instantly.
We’re closing an oversubscribed $3m seed round led by Khosla Ventures. Soon I’ll be announcing additional amazing partners joining in this round too.
The company, and the news, is notable for three reasons:
The problem the company is focused on solving.
Who the CEO is
Who is leading the round
What does TerraBlaster Do?
TerraBlaster (formerly SoilCode) is a startup bringing technology used by NASA to precision agriculture.
Its core innovation is a laser-based soil analysis system. The TerraBlaster sensor uses Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)– a technique that “blasts” the soil with laser pulses, vaporizing tiny soil particles into plasma, and then reads the emitted light spectrum to instantly determine elemental composition.
By breaking molecules into ions and detecting their spectral “fingerprints,” the system can test soil nutrients in real-time.
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