Riyadh – Sharikat Mubasher: Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi energy giant Aramco, led a $9.5 million Series A funding round in Mitti Labs, an India-based climate technology company using artificial intelligence and satellite data to improve the sustainability of rice farming across Asia.

As per a recent press release, the round also attracted participation from Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle.

The investment will help Mitti Labs expand its operations across India while launching new projects in the Philippines and Indonesia. The company also plans to further develop its GeoAI platform, which combines synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery, AI, and field data to create digital twins of rice fields, enabling farmers to optimize irrigation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Zayed AlAmri, Executive Managing Director at Aramco Ventures, said rice cultivation accounts for significant methane emissions and consumes vast amounts of water, making better field-level data essential for improving farming practices.

Since launching in 2023, Mitti Labs has built what it describes as the world's largest Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) rice program, helping save more than 500 billion litres of water while reducing methane emissions without compromising crop yields.