Rize, an agritech platform aiming to make sustainable rice cultivation viable by revolutionary and data-driven practices, has closed its USD$14 million Collection A funding spherical.
Breakthrough Vitality Ventures, GenZero, Temasek, and Wavemaker Affect co-led the spherical.
This spherical will improve Rize’s know-how stack, together with its measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) know-how.
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The capital can even allow it to broaden its operations deeper into Indonesia and Vietnam and assist strengthen its workforce of agronomists to over 100 by the tip of 2024, doubtlessly reaching over 20,000 farmers. The agency additionally plans to broaden into different rice-producing South and Southeast Asian nations in 2025.
Rize was fashioned by a three way partnership between Temasek, Wavemaker Affect, Breakthrough Vitality Ventures and GenZero to decarbonise rice cultivation in Asia. It’s constructing a platform to determine and implement efficient methods to scale back greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions in rice cultivation and the fitting financial incentives throughout the worth chain to drive the adoption of sustainable cultivation methods.
Its know-how stack captures important agricultural knowledge important for implementing sustainable farming practices, making rice farmers extra local weather resilient, growing their crop yields, decreasing prices, and facilitating environment friendly entry to finance. Rize goals to get rid of 100 metric tonnes of carbon emissions whereas enhancing farmer livelihoods.
“We’re confronted with the challenges of addressing the excessive ranges of methane emissions and the water-intensive practices prevalent in rice farming, which accounts for 10 per cent of worldwide methane emissions, a determine that’s set to rise if unchecked,” mentioned Dhruv Sawhney, CEO of Rize.
“One other hurdle is the dearth of exact knowledge, notably among the many quite a few smallholder farms throughout South and Southeast Asia, in addition to the more and more excessive price of farming as a result of elevated enter costs and a altering local weather. Our know-how stack seeks to sort out these challenges. By doing so, we aren’t simply aiming to chop down 100 million tonnes of carbon emissions, we’re additionally enhancing the financial stability of farmers, making certain that improved farmer livelihoods and diminished emissions go hand-in-hand,” he added.
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Rize goals to enhance over 7,000 hectares of rice farming this coming season. These initiatives are projected to decrease emissions by 50 per cent, cut back water utilization by 20 per cent, and improve farmer incomes by as much as 30 per cent, making sustainable rice farming a viable and enticing choice.
“Our platform, and the information it captures, is pivotal in modernising rice farming, leveraging know-how to boost yield and effectivity sustainably,” remarked Sawhney. “On condition that producing a single bowl of rice requires over 200 litres of contemporary water, and contemplating that your entire rice trade accounts for greater than a 3rd of the world’s irrigation water, the urgency to undertake sustainable strategies is obvious.”
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