Key Takeaways
- Mitti Labs raised a $9.5 million Series A led by Aramco Ventures, with Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle.
- The funding will expand the company’s footprint in India and launch new projects in the Philippines and Indonesia.
- Its GeoAI platform fuses high-resolution satellite radar data with field measurements to build plot-level digital twins of Asia’s rice fields.
- Alternate Wetting and Drying can cut rice water use by close to 40% and methane emissions by more than 50% while maintaining yields.
- Mitti Labs says it has saved 500 billion liters of water since 2023 and aims to reach 150 million smallholder farmers.
Mitti Labs Closes $9.5 Million Series A
Deep-tech company Mitti Labs has raised $9.5 million in a Series A round led by Aramco Ventures, bringing total funding to $12.5 million. Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle also joined the round. The company will use the capital to grow in India and start greenfield projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. Rice is the world’s most water-intensive staple, consuming more than 30% of all irrigation water, and continuously flooded fields are a major source of methane.
Satellite AI for Smallholder Rice Fields
Most of the world’s rice grows on fragmented plots smaller than two hectares, where reliable data on water use and emissions does not exist. Developed with support from NASA, the Mitti Labs GeoAI platform turns raw synthetic aperture radar data into field-level insights on crop health, soil moisture and flooding, which are used to optimize irrigation. The approach builds on wider progress in AI in agriculture.
“Growing more rice with less water is one of the world’s major challenges,” said Xavier Laguarta, co-founder of Mitti Labs. “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.”
Cutting Water Use and Methane
Science-backed shifts to alternate irrigation techniques such as Alternate Wetting and Drying can cut water use by close to 40% and methane emissions by more than 50% while maintaining yields. Since launching in 2023, the company says it has built the largest such program globally and saved 500 billion liters of water, and counts Cool Effect, Ebro Foods and Syngenta among its customers. Its work is closely tied to the outlook for agriculture in India, where water stress on smallholders is acute.
“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,” said Zayed AlAmri, Executive Managing Director at Aramco Ventures. “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.”
Mitti Labs Plans Regional Expansion
With the new capital, Mitti Labs will expand its footprint in India and launch projects in the Philippines and Indonesia, scaling its GeoAI platform to build plot-level digital twins across diverse rice varieties and agro-ecological zones.
