Turning Satellite Data into Smarter Decisions for Agriculture

Column by Taralinda Willis, CEO, Agrograph

When I joined Agrograph in 2024, I was drawn to a challenge that sits at the intersection of agriculture, technology, and data. Agriculture has always been part of my life through my family’s farm, and after building and scaling a software company in Madison, I was excited by the opportunity to apply technology to one of the world’s most important industries.

Agrograph helps organizations better understand agricultural risk using satellite imagery and artificial intelligence. By analyzing publicly available satellite data from sources such as NASA and the European Union, we can evaluate individual farm fields and generate insights that were previously difficult or impossible to access at scale.

What makes our approach unique is the level of detail. Rather than looking at agriculture through broad regional averages, we analyze fields individually. Using AI-powered models, we evaluate dozens of factors, including weather patterns, soil conditions, crop performance, and management practices. That allows us to generate field-level insights and predict yields throughout the growing season with remarkable accuracy.

Today, many of our customers are in the insurance industry, where understanding risk at the field level can create better outcomes than relying solely on county-wide averages. By providing more precise information, we help insurers, asset managers, and agricultural businesses make smarter decisions backed by data.

Agrograph’s roots are firmly planted in Wisconsin. The company was founded by Dr. Mutlu Ozdogan, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an expert in remote sensing. More than a decade ago, he recognized the potential of satellite imagery to unlock new insights for agriculture and launched the company to bring that research into the marketplace.

Wisconsin has been an ideal place to grow both my entrepreneurial career and Agrograph. Earlier in my career, my husband and I built a Madison-based software company called Curate, which successfully scaled and was eventually acquired. That experience showed me firsthand the value of Wisconsin’s startup ecosystem. The relationships formed through investors, entrepreneurs, and innovation-focused organizations often extend well beyond a single company.

In fact, my path to Agrograph came through those same connections. Following the sale of Curate, an investor who had backed our previous company introduced me to the opportunity at Agrograph. That experience highlights the strength of Wisconsin’s startup community, where successful entrepreneurs are encouraged to reinvest their experience, relationships, and ideas into building the next generation of companies.

Wisconsin also benefits from a strong talent pipeline. As a University of Wisconsin alum, and someone who remains closely connected to the university system, I have seen how graduates contribute to innovative companies across the state. Access to talented researchers, engineers, and data scientists has been instrumental to our growth.

Looking ahead, I am especially excited about the future of agricultural technology. The amount of data available across agriculture continues to expand, from satellite imagery to information generated by equipment operating in the field. As AI becomes more powerful, we have an incredible opportunity to turn that data into actionable insights that help businesses better understand risk, improve efficiency, and make more informed decisions.

I believe the future of agriculture will be driven by more data collection, deeper insights, and better decision-making. With Wisconsin’s strong agricultural heritage, world-class research institutions, and growing innovation ecosystem, there is no better place to help build that future.