Saudi Aramco backs India s Mitti Labs to make Asia s rice farming more water-resilient. Mitti Labs plans to expand beyond India and enter the Philippines and Indonesia while growing its carbon credits and agricultural data business. As rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns put Asia's water-intensive rice farming under pressure, Mitti Labs, a New York- and Bengaluru-headquartered climate-tech startup, has raised $9.5 million in an investment led by Aramco Ventures, Saudi Aramco's venture arm, to expand across Asia with a platform that combines satellite imagery, AI, and field operations to help farmers cut water use and methane emissions. Other investors in the Series A round included existing backer Lightspeed India, as well as Godrej Industries Group, Cisco, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. With the latest funding, Mitti Labs has now raised $12.5 million, including a $3 million seed round in July 2024. Rice, the staple food for more than half the world's population, is one of the most water-intensive crops to grow. Rice fields kept under continuous flooding also account for a significant share of agricultural methane emissions. Since launching its first programs in 2023, Mitti Labs has sought to tackle the heavy water use and methane emissions associated with rice farming through its platform that fuses satellite radar imagery with years of field data collected by its teams. The startup says the technology creates digital twins of individual rice fields, allowing it to monitor crop conditions, water use, and methane emissions across thousands of smallholder farms, where the average holding is about one hectare. Mitti Labs' GeoAI platform uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery from commercial and public satellites, with resolutions ranging from 50 centimeters to 10 meters, alongside years of field measurements collected by its teams. The startup's edge lies less in the satellite imagery itself than in the proprietary datasets it has built to train its AI models, allowing it to monitor crop growth, soil moisture, and flooding across smallholder farms remotely, co-founder Xavier Laguarta said in an interview. Mitti Labs has grown from working with about 8,000 farmers in its first season in 2024 to more than 100,000 this season across several Indian states, Laguarta told TechCrunch. He added that it aims to reach millions of smallholder farmers by 2030. The startup also now has more than 150 employees, with most of its workforce based in India, where field teams work directly with farmers and local organizations to help them adopt alternate irrigation practices. Farmers in Mitti Labs' programs adopt alternate irrigation practices that the company says reduce water use by about 40% and methane emissions by more than 50% without affecting yields, while generating carbon credits that provide an additional source of income. Mitti Labs generates revenue from both carbon credits and its GeoAI platform. Its customers include carbon marketplace Cool Effect, which works with companies like Google and American Airlines, as well as rice producer Ebro Foods and agricultural company Syngenta, which use Mitti Labs' data and analytics to improve water resilience across their supply chains. That traction also helped attract Aramco Ventures, whose investment marks its first in an Indian startup. Laguarta told TechCrunch that the Saudi energy giant's venture arm was drawn to Mitti Labs' focus on reducing methane emissions, improving water resilience, and applying AI to agriculture in emerging markets. The partnership, he said, could also help the startup tap into Aramco Ventures' relationships across carbon markets and potentially work with Aramco itself over time. "Obviously, Aramco is one of the largest companies in the world, and being able to have them as a partner and potential customer over time is a really interesting position for us to be in," Laguarta said. Using the fresh capital, Mitti Labs plans to launch operations in the Philippines later this year, before expanding into Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets in 2027. The move, per Laguarta, would allow Mitti Labs to serve compliance carbon markets alongside the voluntary market where it currently operates, while adapting its operating model to different farming systems and irrigation networks. "We're really a data company at the end of the day," Laguarta said. "When you do these expansions, you're generating and gathering data from very different ecosystems."

Mitti Labs, a New York and Bengaluru-based climate-tech startup, has raised $9.5 million in a Series A round led by Aramco Ventures to tackle water use and methane emissions in Asia's rice farming. Other investors include Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. The startup's GeoAI platform combines satellite imagery with field data to create digital twins of rice fields, monitoring crop conditions and emissions across smallholder farms. Co-founder Xavier Laguarta said the company's edge lies in proprietary datasets used to train AI models. Mitti Labs has grown from 8,000 farmers in 2024 to over 100,000 this season across Indian states. The platform helps farmers reduce water use by 40% and methane emissions by over 50% whilst generating carbon credits. The startup plans to launch in the Philippines this year before expanding into Indonesia and Southeast Asia in 2027.

Cool Effect builds on market-leading superpollutant portfolio with addition of rice methane reduction project from Mitti Labs. Mitti Labs Logo PRNewswire Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 14: Cool Effect, a Bay Area nonprofit that supports high-integrity carbon projects around the globe and recognized leader in superpollutant climate action, today announced a new partnership with Mitti Labs, a Bengaluru and NYC-based climate technology company focused on reducing methane emissions from rice cultivation. - Nonprofit Expands High-Integrity Carbon Credit Offerings with Purchase of Isometric Tonnes, Supporting Climate Impact and Farmer Livelihoods Superpollutant mitigation is one of the most powerful near-term climate strategies, and Cool Effect has positioned itself at the forefront of this rapidly growing segment of the carbon market. Between 2024 and 2025, 64% of all credits purchased through Cool Effect addressed superpollutants, including ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and landfill methane. During this period, Cool Effect purchased 3,365,616 tonnes of superpollutant credits, sending over $36 million directly to project partners. This capital translates into immediate, permanent emissions reductions and durable climate impact. With the addition of rice methane, Cool Effect is expanding its superpollutant portfolio beyond ODS and landfill gas to include a third, rapidly scalable category. Through this new collaboration, Cool Effect will offer Mitti Labs' high-quality, methane reduction carbon credits to its global network of corporate and individual buyers. In addition to emissions reductions, the project is expected to generate meaningful co-benefits, including increased income for smallholder farmers and the conservation of an estimated 25 billion liters of water in water-stressed regions of India. This partnership comes at a critical moment for the carbon market, as demand continues to shift toward high-integrity credits with verified climate impact and strong community benefits. At the same time, supply constraints have made it increasingly difficult for buyers to access scalable, scientifically robust projects that meet rigorous standards. "As the market raises the bar on integrity and impact, it's critical that buyers have access to solutions that are both scientifically rigorous and truly scalable. Cool Effect has focused on reduction of methane and other harmful gases because it delivers some of the most immediate and meaningful climate benefits available today, and over the past two years, our buyers have helped direct significant capital toward projects that meet our standard," said Jodi Manning, CEO of Cool Effect. "We're proud to welcome Mitti Labs to our portfolio. Their credits represent a new frontier in high-integrity climate action, delivering permanent methane reductions from rice cultivation while also driving meaningful co-benefits for water conservation and smallholder farmer incomes. This is exactly the kind of climate solution we believe in." Rice cultivation plays a critical role in global food systems, feeding nearly half the world's population, and has a massive impact on the climate and water tables. Rice farming occupies 150 Mn hectares in Asia, an area roughly three times the size of California. However, traditional flooding practices used in rice farming are a major contributor to methane emissions, accounting for approximately 12% of global methane output. Rice production also consumes roughly 30% of the world's freshwater supply, placing additional strain on already stressed water systems. Mitti Labs supports farmers in adopting Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), an irrigation technique that can reduce water use by up to 40% and methane emissions by up to 50% without compromising yields. The organization has already partnered with more than 70,000 farmers across six states in India to implement these practices at scale. To ensure the integrity of its carbon credits, Mitti Labs uses a robust measurement, reporting, and verification system that combines rigorous in-situ, ground-level methane measurements with the latest in remote sensing technology. This technology, developed in part with the support of NASA, is a 'soil-to-sky' rice-specific dMRV that can monitor irrigation practices on even the smallest plots below 1 Ha. The platform enables accurate, near real-time monitoring of emissions reductions across millions of rice fields, providing the mechanism to generate volumes of high-integrity credits at affordable prices for global buyers and delivering meaningful incentives for farmers to join Mitti Labs' programs. "This is an exciting time for our young company. Three years after our launch, we have now demonstrated that rice, a key staple for half of humanity, which is also a major guzzler of water and emitter of powerful GHGs, can be turned into a powerful vehicle for climate action. We could not dream of a better initial partner than Cool Effect to bring our high-integrity, dMRV-verified credits to the market," said Xavi Laguarta, Mitti Labs co-founder. With plans to scale to 2 million credits issued annually by 2028, Mitti Labs aims to play a leading role in expanding the supply of high-integrity, methane-based carbon credits. This partnership highlights the growing importance of nature-based climate solutions that deliver measurable emissions reductions while benefiting agricultural systems and local communities. "High-quality climate solutions require both strong science and real-world applicability," said Johanna Depenthal, PhD, Director of Project Research at Cool Effect. "Mitti Labs' approach shows how innovative monitoring combined with farmer-centered implementation can achieve meaningful emissions reductions in practice." To learn more about Cool Effect and how to partner with the organization to develop an impactful carbon credit program, please visit cooleffect.org. About Cool Effect(TM) Cool Effect is a San Francisco Bay Area 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to reducing carbon emissions around the world. Endorsed by 1% for the Planet, its mission is to educate and then inspire businesses and individuals to take measurable action against climate change by purchasing scientifically verified carbon credits from the world's highest quality projects. It returns more than 90% of each donation directly to its project partners and, since its launch at the Paris COP in 2015, has helped projects receive over $84 million for over ten million tonnes of emissions retired. Like the Butterfly Effect, The Ripple Effect, and others, a single action can have global impact. To learn more, please visit cooleffect.org or follow Cool Effect on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. About Mitti Labs Mitti Labs combines satellite technology, AI and operations on the ground to permanently reduce methane emissions from rice farming. By doing this, the company unlocks the potential of rice-based carbon credits for climate impact at scale. Mitti Labs is backed by Lightspeed, Voyager Ventures, Cisco, and Volta Circle in its mission to decarbonize the $300 Bn rice-growing industry worldwide. Visit mittilabs.earth to learn more. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2979254/Mitti_Labs_Logo.jpg (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content First Published: May 14 2026 | 11:00 AM IST