Founded in 2017 by Carlo Mondavi, Mark Schwager, Praveen Penmetsa, and Zachary Omohundro, Monarch Tractor is bringing large scale efficiencies to agriculture, working to make it sustainable and economically superior. They are achieving this through their highly innovative tractor platform which combines mechanization, automation, and data analysis—that brings improvements to farm operations, helps alleviate labor shortages and maximizes farm yields.
In addition, Monarch is working to eliminate the use of diesel fuel through its innovative mechanical solutions and machine learning software. Their goal is to make its tractor platform a net contributor to the environment through the absence of side effects.
As the maker of the world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor, Monarch has gained venture capital backing that is funding the tractor’s production and deployment. Their recently completed $61M Series B funding round, a follow on to its $20M Series A in the spring, was led by Astanor Ventures, one of the world’s leading sustainable food venture firms. Other participants were: CNH Industrial, At One Ventures and Trimble Ventures.
Funds will also be used to scale its sales, service and manufacturing footprint and to launch international pilot test programs for regional market validation.
“Monarch is transforming what is arguably the most important vehicle on the planet: tractors,” said Hendrik Van Asbroeck, partner at Astanor Ventures. “Tractors emit 14x more than a car, and have not seen the same wave of digital innovation as we have seen in the automobile industry. Beyond delivering an affordable, clean and autonomous solution, Monarch‘s tractors capture detailed on-farm data to enable the sustainable and efficient farms of the future.”
Monarch has the interest of specialty crop farmers who see the tractor platform as helping them reach their economic and sustainability goals. They are impressed with its full camera and sensor suite that accurately maps and tags every crop on the farm.
In addition, the platform has high global potential with the agricultural tech startup expanding its focus to South America, Europe and Asia with their planned international pilot testing programs
“Fruit and vegetable farmers have long been ignored in the electrification and automation movement, and that’s why the Monarch platform is built with them in mind,” said Praveen Penmetsa, co-founder & CEO, Monarch Tractor. “Due to the ever-increasing labor challenges, sustainability concerns, and food traceability and scrutiny issues farmers face, we have experienced great demand for the unique solutions Monarch Tractor offers.”
Describing their past year as “momentous”, Monarch’s leadership team has high expectations for their four year old agtech startup for the coming year—as it is well positioned and well-funded for market growth that includes going global.
