Rize, a Singapore-based agritech platform working towards making rice cultivation sustainable, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), GenZero, Temasek, and Wavemaker Impact, according to an announcement.
This investment will enhance Rize’s technology stack, including its measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) technology and support its expansion into Indonesia, Vietnam, and across South and Southeast Asia.
Rize was established by Singapore’s state investor Temasek, Wavemaker Impact, Bill Gates’ BEV, and GenZero in 2023.
Rize’s technology stack captures vital agricultural data essential for implementing sustainable farming practices, making rice farming more climate resilient, increasing crop yields, lowering costs, and facilitating efficient access to finance for the farmers. This advances Rize’s goal to eliminate 100 metric tonnes of carbon emissions while significantly improving farmer livelihoods.
Leveraging a robust technology stack, Rize enhances the capabilities of its agronomists, enabling them to reach more farmers and collect precise data on farm performance and crop yields.
The funds will enable Rize to expand its operations deeper into Indonesia and Vietnam and help strengthen its team of agronomists to over 100 by the end of 2024, potentially reaching over 20,000 farmers. Rize also has plans to expand into other rice producing South and Southeast Asian countries in 2025.
“We are confronted with the challenges of addressing the high levels of methane emissions and the water-intensive practices prevalent in rice farming, which accounts for 10% of global methane emissions, a figure that is set to rise if unchecked,” said Dhruv Sawhney, CEO of Rize.
“As global rice demand is projected to double by 2050, mitigating the environmental impact of rice cultivation is essential in the fight against climate change,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Rize’s data-driven technology and expert team of agronomists are a powerful combination for tackling this challenge and scaling viable sustainable rice farming across Asia and globally.”
“We are proud to continue our investment in Rize. The outcomes that Rize achieved in the last 18 months is a testament to the robustness of its collective value proposition and business model,” said Marie Cheong, Founding Partner, Wavemaker Impact. “With this round of capital injection, we have every confidence in Dhruv and team to scale the adoption of sustainable farming techniques across the region, scaling the impact of decarbonisation and livelihood improvement of smallholder farms.”
BEV is a climate-focused organisation founded by Bill Gates. It has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support cutting-edge companies that are working towards net-zero emissions.
In April this year, BEV was reported to be launching a programme in Singapore to help develop early-stage climate technologies in the region.
BEV will partner with Singapore state investor Temasek and Enterprise Singapore to launch Breakthrough Energy Fellows-Southeast Asia (BE Fellows–SEA), the first expansion of BE’s global fellows programme outside the US, according to an announcement.
