Mitti Labs Raises $9.5 Million Led by Aramco Ventures to Expand Across Asia

Mitti Labs has raised $9.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, as the climate technology startup looks to expand its artificial intelligence platform for rice farming across Asia. Existing investor Lightspeed India joined the round alongside Godrej Industries Group, Cisco, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle.

The latest investment brings the startup’s total funding to $12.5 million, following its $3 million seed round in July 2024. Headquartered in New York and Bengaluru, Mitti Labs aims to help farmers reduce water consumption and methane emissions while improving climate resilience in one of the world’s most important food crops.

Rice feeds more than half of the global population but is also among the most water-intensive crops to cultivate. Traditional flooded rice fields are a major source of agricultural methane emissions, making them an important target for climate-focused innovation.

AI and satellite data power digital farm monitoring

Since launching its first programmes in 2023, Mitti Labs has combined satellite radar imagery with years of field measurements to create digital twins of individual rice fields. Its GeoAI platform analyses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from both commercial and public satellites alongside proprietary field data collected by the company’s teams.

Co-founder Xavier Laguarta said the competitive advantage lies less in the satellite images themselves and more in the unique datasets used to train the company’s AI models. The platform can remotely monitor crop growth, soil moisture, flooding and methane emissions across thousands of smallholder farms, where average landholdings are typically around one hectare.

Mitti Labs has expanded rapidly, growing from approximately 8,000 participating farmers during its first season in 2024 to more than 100,000 farmers this season across several Indian states. The company now employs more than 150 people, with most of its workforce based in India, where field teams work directly with farming communities to encourage alternative irrigation practices.

Reducing emissions while creating new income

According to the company, farmers using its recommended irrigation methods can reduce water consumption by about 40% and methane emissions by more than 50% without affecting crop yields. Those practices also generate carbon credits, providing farmers with an additional source of income.

Mitti Labs generates revenue from both carbon credits and subscriptions to its GeoAI platform. Its customers include carbon marketplace Cool Effect, which works with organisations such as Google and American Airlines, as well as rice producer Ebro Foods and agricultural company Syngenta, which use the company’s analytics to improve water resilience within their supply chains.

Expansion planned across Southeast Asia

Laguarta said Aramco Ventures was attracted by the startup’s focus on methane reduction, water resilience and the application of artificial intelligence to agriculture in emerging markets. He added that the partnership could eventually provide access to Aramco’s broader relationships across carbon markets and potentially create future commercial opportunities with the energy company itself.

Using the new funding, Mitti Labs plans to launch operations in the Philippines later this year before expanding into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. The expansion will allow the company to participate in compliance carbon markets alongside the voluntary market where it currently operates while adapting its technology to different farming systems and irrigation networks.

Laguarta said Mitti Labs ultimately sees itself as a data company, with every new market generating valuable information from different agricultural ecosystems that can further strengthen its AI models and support its goal of reaching millions of smallholder farmers by 2030.