Mitti Labs raises $9.5 million to improve water‑efficient rice farming in Asia

Deep‑tech startup Mitti Labs announced a $9.5 million Series A round led by Aramco Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund and Volta Circle. The funding will expand the company’s operations in India and launch greenfield projects in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Mitti Labs’ GeoAI platform combines high‑resolution synthetic‑aperture‑radar satellite data with field‑collected ground truth to create digital twins of individual rice plots. The system delivers field‑level insights on crop health, soil moisture and flooding, enabling irrigation practices that can cut water use by roughly 40 % and methane emissions by more than 50 % while preserving yields. The technology, developed with NASA support, targets the livelihoods of up to 150 million smallholder farmers across Asia. Co‑founder Xavier Laguarta and Aramco Ventures’ executive Zayed Al‑Amri highlighted the platform’s potential to boost food security under climate stress.