When it comes to startup innovation, most entrepreneurs are hunting for big pain points with an addressable market that could post big returns for potential investors. But for Israeli data analytics startup Prospera co-founder and CEO Daniel Koppel, starting with a niche market had its advantages.

“Agriculture is a really big world segmented into smaller pieces. You can’t compare a corn grower in the Midwest to a grape grower in California to a tomato grower in Mexico,” Koppel told AFN. “If we want to prove we can provide value and that data science can be something that moves the needle for the industry and is provable, we said let’s start where it’s a bit easier.”

This led the Prospera to the greenhouse, which caught many in the industry by surprise, he says. Although it is a niche market, the team wanted to prove its technology in an environment that offered a much shorter timeline compared to row crops. Some greenhouse crops can be harvested on a weekly basis, for example. The greenhouse environment is also far more controllable than an open field, which helps identify weak points in a product with greater ease.

“We view growing agriculture as a mathematical function with lots of variables. In the end, you want to increase yield and quality. It’s a different challenge because what you are measured on at the end of the season is an actual function itself of what is happening over a long period of time. It’s a difficult task. There’s great tech out there, but proving it is hard because of this chaotic function.”

Founded in 2014 and backed by Qualcomm, Cisco, and Bessemer Venture Partners, Prospera began by assisting growers with spraying using computer vision images to look at pest and disease. From there, it moved to irrigation and built a tool to assist with in-season decision making. After conquering these functions in the greenhouse environment, Prospera was ready to take its technology to the wide-open field.