Saudi Aramco Just Backed an Indian Climate Tech Startup to Transform Asia's Rice Farms

Saudi Arabia's national oil company just backed an Indian startup that helps rice farmers emit less methane.

Mitti Labs, a Bengaluru-based climate technology company, raised $9.5 million in a round led by Aramco Ventures — the venture arm of Saudi Aramco. Participating investors include Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation, Francis Family Fund, and Volta Circle. Total funding reaches $12.5 million.

Mitti Labs uses AI-powered satellite monitoring and digital carbon measurement to help farmers adopt climate-smart practices. Its primary focus is rice cultivation — one of the most significant sources of agricultural methane emissions globally. Rice paddies produce methane through a process called anaerobic decomposition, and flooded rice fields are responsible for approximately 10 percent of global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

The company's technology reduces water consumption in rice farming by up to 40 percent while lowering methane emissions by nearly 50 percent. It achieves this by shifting farmers from traditional continuous flooding to alternate wetting and drying techniques, monitored and verified through satellite data. The platform also generates carbon credits from the verified emissions reductions, creating a direct financial incentive for farmers to adopt the new practices.

Aramco Ventures' participation is a strategic signal. The energy giant is investing aggressively in carbon mitigation and agricultural emissions technology as part of its sustainability commitments — and Mitti Labs' model, which quantifies and monetizes emissions reductions at farm scale, fits directly into that thesis. Mitti plans to use the fresh capital to expand operations across India and enter new markets in the Philippines and Indonesia, where rice cultivation profiles are similar.

What this means for founders

Mitti Labs is doing something structurally interesting: it aligned the business model (carbon credits) with the farmer incentive (revenue from new practices) and the investor thesis (measurable emissions reduction). That alignment is what attracted Aramco Ventures, which is not typically an agritech investor. For founders building in climate tech: the most fundable models are the ones where the emissions reduction and the business model are the same thing, not where emissions reduction is a byproduct of a separate business.

Investors: Aramco Ventures, Lightspeed India, Godrej Industries Group, Cisco Foundation Round: $9.5M Total raised:$12.5M | Emissions reduction: up to 50% methane per farm

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