Mitti Labs has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding to expand its satellite- and AI-powered platform for improving water efficiency and reducing methane emissions across Asia’s rice fields. Aramco Ventures led the round, with participation from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle. The financing brings Mitti Labs’ total funding to $12.5 million since the company launched in 2023.
Mitti Labs plans to use the capital to expand its operations across India and launch new projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. The company will also continue scaling its GeoAI platform to cover millions of smallholder farming plots.
The platform combines high-resolution synthetic aperture radar satellite data with information collected directly from farms and physical models of agricultural conditions.
Mitti Labs uses this data to create digital representations of individual rice fields and generate insights into crop health, soil moisture and flooding patterns.
The technology was developed with support from NASA and is intended to address the limited availability of reliable field-level data across fragmented agricultural areas.
Much of Asia’s rice is grown on plots smaller than two hectares, making it difficult to consistently measure farming practices, yields, water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions across large regions.
Mitti Labs’ platform uses artificial intelligence to convert raw satellite data into information that farmers, agricultural partners and project operators can use to manage irrigation more efficiently.
The company is particularly focused on expanding the use of Alternate Wetting and Drying, or AWD, an irrigation approach in which rice fields are allowed to dry periodically instead of remaining continuously flooded.
According to Mitti Labs, properly implemented alternate irrigation techniques can reduce water consumption by close to 40% and methane emissions by more than 50% while maintaining rice yields.
The company combines its GeoAI technology with field operations and relationships with local farmers to implement AWD programs across large numbers of geographically dispersed farms.
Mitti Labs said it has developed the world’s largest AWD rice program since beginning operations in 2023.
The company’s expansion comes as rice production faces growing pressure from rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns and increasingly strained water supplies.
Rice is consumed by approximately half of the world’s population each day and accounts for more than 30% of global irrigation water use, according to Mitti Labs.
Traditional rice cultivation commonly involves continuously flooding fields. While this approach helps control weeds and support crop growth, it also creates conditions that produce methane, a greenhouse gas with a significant impact on global warming.
Mitti Labs believes more precise monitoring can make it easier to change irrigation practices without placing yields or farmer livelihoods at unnecessary risk.
Its platform is designed to monitor conditions across different rice varieties, climates and agricultural regions, helping determine when fields should be irrigated and when water can be withheld.
The company said this combination of satellite monitoring, AI-based analysis and local field execution can help farmers conserve water while generating measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Since its launch, Mitti Labs’ programs have saved an estimated 500 billion liters of water, an amount the company said is equivalent to Bengaluru’s annual water supply.
Mitti Labs has also grown to approximately 150 employees and works with customers across the technology, food, agriculture and climate markets. Its customers include Cool Effect, Ebro Foods and Syngenta.
The company expects its model to create additional economic opportunities connected to lower-emission and more water-efficient rice production.
These opportunities could include climate-related financing and revenue generated through verified reductions in methane emissions, although the company did not disclose specific commercial targets for the new projects.
The Series A will support Mitti Labs as it expands beyond its existing Indian operations and enters two of Southeast Asia’s largest rice-producing markets.
By extending its GeoAI platform into the Philippines and Indonesia, the company aims to demonstrate that its technology and operating model can be applied across varied agricultural conditions and farming communities.
Mitti Labs ultimately wants to improve water resilience and strengthen livelihoods for the approximately 150 million smallholder farmers involved in rice cultivation.
KEY QUOTES:
“Growing more rice with less water is one of the world’s major challenges. Demand for rice continues to grow, but record heat and changing rainfall patterns are threatening water systems and endangering food security.”
“With our technology and scalable operational model, we can transform how rice is grown, lower emissions and cut water consumption while building resilient livelihoods for 150 million smallholder farmers.”
Xavier Laguarta, Co-Founder of Mitti Labs
“Rice covers a fifth of Asia’s cultivated land, and it is both a major source of methane and one of the most water-intensive crops grown. Changing farming practices is not easy, but the harder part has been knowing what is actually happening in the fields across millions of small farms. That is what Mitti Labs’ AI and satellite technology aims to solve.”
Zayed AlAmri, Executive Managing Director at Aramco Ventures
“Solving the world’s water crisis requires bringing together smallholder farmers, industry stakeholders, governments and nonprofits to transform how rice is grown. With its unique technology and vast network of farmer-partners, Mitti Labs can unlock new revenue opportunities tied to this transition and help build the future of rice.”
Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed India
“As an investor deeply rooted in India, we know firsthand how critical water resilience is for farming communities. Mitti Labs has built a remarkable model that leverages technology toward securing the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. This model has the potential to reshape rice farming all over Asia.”
Burjis Godrej, Godrej Industries Group
