Amid rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns that challenge Asia’s water-heavy rice cultivation, Mitti Labs, a climate-tech startup with headquarters in New York and Bengaluru, has secured $9.5 million in funding led by Aramco Ventures, the investment branch of Saudi Aramco, to grow its presence throughout Asia with a platform that merges satellite imagery, AI, and on-field operations to assist farmers in decreasing water consumption and methane emissions.

The Series A round also saw participation from current investor Lightspeed India, alongside Godrej Industries Group, Cisco, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. With this recent investment, Mitti Labs has increased its total funding to $12.5 million, which includes a $3 million seed investment received in July 2024.

Rice, consumed by over half of the global population, is notably one of the most water-demanding crops. Continuously flooded rice fields also contribute significantly to agricultural methane emissions.

Since the initiation of its programs in 2023, Mitti Labs has aimed to address the high water usage and methane production linked to rice agriculture through a platform that integrates satellite radar imagery with extensive on-ground data collected by its teams. The startup claims this technology develops digital representations of individual rice fields, enabling the monitoring of crop health, water consumption, and methane emissions across numerous smallholder farms, with the average farm size being about one hectare.

Mitti Labs’ GeoAI platform leverages synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from both public and commercial satellites, with resolutions varying from 50 centimeters to 10 meters, along with years of field measurements gathered by its teams. According to co-founder Xavier Laguarta in an interview, the startup’s advantage lies not only in the satellite imagery itself but also in the unique datasets it has constructed to train its AI models, which facilitate remote monitoring of crop development, soil moisture, and flooding on smallholder farms.

Mitti Labs has expanded from collaborating with around 8,000 farmers in its inaugural season in 2024 to over 100,000 this current season across multiple states in India, Laguarta informed TechCrunch. He mentioned that the goal is to reach millions of smallholder farmers by 2030.

The startup now employs more than 150 staff members, primarily based in India, where field teams engage directly with farmers and local organizations to guide them in transitioning to alternative irrigation methods.

Farmers enrolled in Mitti Labs’ initiatives are adopting alternative irrigation methods that the company claims can lower water consumption by approximately 40% and reduce methane emissions by over 50% without compromising yields, while also generating carbon credits that provide an extra revenue stream.

Mitti Labs earns revenue from both carbon credits and its GeoAI platform. Its clientele includes carbon marketplace Cool Effect, which collaborates with companies such as Google and American Airlines, along with rice producer Ebro Foods and agricultural firm Syngenta, both of which utilize Mitti Labs’ data and analytics to enhance water resilience throughout their supply chains.

This progress has also helped draw the interest of Aramco Ventures, whose investment represents its inaugural engagement with an Indian startup. Laguarta mentioned to TechCrunch that the Saudi energy multinational’s venture arm was attracted to Mitti Labs’ commitment to mitigating methane emissions, bolstering water resilience, and implementing AI in agriculture within emerging markets. He noted that this partnership could also enable the startup to leverage Aramco Ventures’ connections in carbon markets and potentially collaborate with Aramco itself in the future.

“Clearly, Aramco is one of the largest corporations globally, and having them as a partner and potential customer over time is a very intriguing position for us,” Laguarta stated.

With the new funding, Mitti Labs intends to commence operations in the Philippines later this year, before progressing into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. According to Laguarta, this expansion will enable Mitti Labs to cater to compliance carbon markets in addition to the voluntary market within which it presently operates, while tailoring its operational strategy to various agricultural systems and irrigation networks.

“At the end of the day, we really are a data company,” Laguarta remarked. “When you pursue these expansions, you are generating and collecting data from distinct ecosystems.”