CarbonFarm raises €7m to expand rice decarbonisation projects

CarbonFarm secures €7m Series A led by Colam Impact

CarbonFarm has raised €7 million in an oversubscribed Series A to expand its rice decarbonisation business, Tech.eu reports. The investment will support both the company’s technology and its capacity to help partners develop projects that cut agricultural emissions.

Colam Impact led the round, joined by Proparco, Suma Capital, elea, Working Capital Fund, Albo and Bpifrance. Tech.eu also named returning investors Serena and makesense, participating through Racine², alongside Techmind. The funding brings together new and existing backers behind a business connecting changes in rice farming with climate finance.

Rice farming presents a methane and water challenge

CarbonFarm provides digital monitoring, reporting and verification, known as MRV, specifically for rice production. According to Tech.eu, the company has extended its operations to 19 countries since its previous funding round, working with organisations in food and agriculture, carbon finance, international development and technology.

The environmental opportunity is substantial. Tech.eu reports that rice cultivation produces around 12 per cent of methane emissions caused by human activity and consumes up to 28 per cent of global freshwater resources. Better water management can cut emissions by as much as 50 per cent and water consumption by 30 per cent without reducing yields.

Delivering those improvements requires more than changing irrigation practices on an individual farm. Smallholders dominate rice production, so large projects must coordinate thousands of farms and establish dependable ways to assess their environmental results. CarbonFarm works with producers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, NGOs, governments and local project developers to put changes into practice and measure their effects.

Its system uses artificial intelligence to analyse satellite imagery, alongside tools for collecting field data and models of greenhouse gas emissions. That combination allows CarbonFarm to track farming practices and estimate emissions for individual fields. The resulting evidence supports carbon credit certification and corporate reporting on supply-chain emissions, according to Tech.eu.

CarbonFarm also helps partners arrange financing, navigate certification and reach carbon credit buyers. Those services connect the technical task of measuring emissions with the commercial work needed to fund a project and sell its credits.

Founders put local expertise and credible measurement first

Vassily Carantino, CarbonFarm’s co-founder and chief executive, told Tech.eu that expansion depends on strengthening existing participants in agricultural supply chains rather than displacing them. His position is that local organisations already hold the farming knowledge and relationships needed to change practices; CarbonFarm’s contribution is to help convert that expertise into programmes capable of securing finance and meeting scrutiny.

James Hastwell, co-founder and chief technology officer, focused on the commercial value of scientific evidence. As reported by Tech.eu, he argued that projects which explain clearly how their results were measured can earn greater buyer confidence and potentially command higher prices for their carbon credits. CarbonFarm links that emphasis on reliable data to increasingly demanding carbon accounting requirements.

Europe remains a priority as Latin America expansion accelerates

CarbonFarm intends to strengthen its presence in Asia, Africa and Europe while moving faster into Latin America, according to Tech.eu. The stated plan combines deeper activity in established regions with expansion elsewhere; the report does not identify individual target countries or give a timetable for market launches.

The technology investment is paired with further development of CarbonFarm’s project delivery capabilities. For partners, the intended outcome is support for implementing, financing and assessing rice decarbonisation programmes on a larger scale, rather than simply access to additional monitoring software.

For businesses expanding into Europe, the relevant connection is agricultural supply-chain reporting and access to climate finance. CarbonFarm’s services address emissions within rice production, making the proposition most directly relevant to organisations sourcing rice or developing agricultural carbon projects. Tech.eu’s report describes a wider European growth ambition, but does not announce a UK launch, a new European office or a country-specific investment allocation.