Mitti Labs

Mitti Labs is an AgTech company focused on reducing the environmental footprint of rice cultivation, a major source of global methane emissions. Founded in 2023 by Devdut Dalal, Xavier Laguarta Soler, and Nate Torbick, the company is headquartered in New York with a subsidiary in Bengaluru, India. The founding team combines diverse expertise; Dalal has a background in the food and agricultural supply chain, Laguarta in sustainability consulting and carbon finance, and Torbick is an expert in remote sensing and environmental monitoring. The idea for Mitti Labs was conceived when Dalal and Laguarta met while pursuing their MBAs at Harvard Business School.

The company's core business revolves around generating high-quality carbon credits by helping smallholder farmers adopt more sustainable cultivation practices. Mitti Labs provides an integrated solution that includes project design, farmer training on techniques like alternate wetting and drying, and project financing. A key component of its offering is a proprietary digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) platform. This technology leverages artificial intelligence, satellite imagery (including synthetic aperture radar), and on-the-ground gas chambers to accurately measure and verify reductions in methane emissions and water usage at a large scale with field-level precision. This rigorous verification process aims to address the quality and integrity concerns that have previously affected the voluntary carbon market.

The business model generates revenue through the sale of these verified carbon credits to corporate buyers seeking to offset their emissions. A significant portion of this revenue is shared with the participating farmers, potentially increasing their annual income by up to 30%. The company has initiated five projects in India, covering 30,000 hectares and involving over 40,000 smallholder farmers, with the goal of reducing 120,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions annually. To support its growth, Mitti Labs secured $3 million in a seed funding round in July 2024, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Voyager Ventures, and Overview. The company has ambitious plans to expand to 200,000 hectares by the end of 2025 and enter new markets such as Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Keywords: carbon credits, agricultural technology, methane reduction, sustainable agriculture, rice farming, dMRV, climate tech, smallholder farmers, carbon finance, satellite imagery analysis, regenerative agriculture, GHG emissions, water management, environmental services, soil health, project development, impact investing, India, AgTech, carbon offsetting