Mitti Labs, a climate-tech startup based in New York and Bengaluru, has secured $9.5 million in a Series A round led by Aramco Ventures. The company plans to scale its platform across Asia to help rice growers use less water and reduce methane emissions.
The round also included support from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle. With this latest investment, Mitti Labs has reached $12.5 million in total funding.
Rice remains one of the world's most water-demanding crops, and flooded fields are also a notable source of agricultural methane. Mitti Labs addresses these challenges with a GeoAI system that combines satellite radar imagery, field data and AI models to create digital twins of rice plots.
According to the company, its technology monitors crop growth, soil moisture and flooding across smallholder farms, where average holdings are about one hectare. Since its first programs began in 2023, the startup says it has expanded from around 8,000 farmers in 2024 to more than 100,000 this season across several Indian states.
The company reports that alternate irrigation methods used by participating farmers can cut water use by about 40% and methane emissions by more than 50%, while keeping yields stable. These practices can also generate carbon credits, creating an added income stream for farmers.
Mitti Labs earns revenue from both carbon credits and its analytics platform, with customers including Cool Effect, Ebro Foods and Syngenta. The new capital will support expansion into the Philippines later this year, followed by Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. As climate-smart agriculture grows, data-led farming tools could play a defining role in the future of food security.
