Mitti Labs has raised $9.5 million in a Series A financing to expand its artificial intelligence-powered agricultural platform and scale water conservation programs across Asia’s rice-growing regions. The funding round was led by Aramco Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle.
The deep-tech company plans to use the capital to expand operations across India while launching new projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. The investment will also support continued development of its GeoAI platform, which combines satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and field data to generate digital models of individual rice fields, helping farmers optimize irrigation practices and improve water management.
Rice production is among the world’s most resource-intensive agricultural activities, accounting for more than 30% of global irrigation water use. Traditional cultivation methods that rely on continuously flooded fields also generate significant methane emissions, making rice farming a major contributor to agricultural greenhouse gases. Mitti Labs is focused on helping farmers transition to alternate irrigation techniques that reduce water consumption and methane emissions while maintaining crop yields.
The company’s GeoAI platform was developed with support from NASA and uses high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data, field observations and physical modeling to produce plot-level insights into soil moisture, crop health and flooding conditions. Those insights enable farmers to adopt Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), an irrigation practice designed to reduce water use without compromising productivity.
According to Mitti Labs, properly implemented AWD can lower irrigation water consumption by nearly 40% while reducing methane emissions by more than 50%. The technology is intended to address one of the industry’s biggest operational challenges: collecting reliable data across millions of fragmented rice farms, many of which are smaller than two hectares.
Co-founder Xavier Laguarta said rising temperatures and increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns are placing additional pressure on Asia’s water resources while demand for rice continues to grow. He said the company’s technology platform is designed to improve water efficiency, reduce agricultural emissions and strengthen the long-term resilience of smallholder farming communities across the region.
The financing supports an expansion strategy centered on both technology development and operational scale. Alongside continued investment in GeoAI, Mitti Labs plans to broaden its field operations model, which combines satellite intelligence with direct farmer engagement to implement improved irrigation practices at scale.
Investors said the combination of satellite technology, artificial intelligence and field operations addresses a longstanding information gap in agricultural water management. Aramco Ventures noted that understanding conditions across millions of small farms has historically limited efforts to improve irrigation efficiency, while Mitti Labs’ platform provides field-level visibility that can support broader adoption of climate-smart farming practices.
Lightspeed India said the company’s technology has the potential to connect farmers, governments, agribusinesses and other stakeholders around more sustainable rice production while creating new economic opportunities tied to improved environmental performance. Godrej Industries Group added that strengthening water resilience remains a critical priority for agricultural communities across India and broader Asia.
Since launching its operations in 2023, Mitti Labs says it has developed the world’s largest Alternate Wetting and Drying rice program. The company has grown to approximately 150 employees and reports that its projects have helped conserve more than 500 billion liters of water, equivalent to Bengaluru’s annual water supply. Its customer base includes organizations in the food, agriculture and sustainability sectors, including Cool Effect, Ebro Foods and Syngenta.
The latest financing positions Mitti Labs to expand its presence across Asia as governments and agricultural producers seek technologies that improve water efficiency, strengthen food security and reduce emissions from one of the world’s most important staple crops.