Monarch Tractor, the creator of a fully electric driver-optional smart tractor, announced Tuesday it has raised $133 million in fresh funding in the largest fundraiser by an agricultural robotics firm to date to build artificial intelligence-driven sustainable farming solutions.

The company’s Series C funding round was co-led by the global impact investor Astanor and HH-CTBC Partnership L.P., an affiliate fund of Foxconn, with additional investments from At One Ventures, PMV and The Welvaartsfonds. Including this funding round, the company has raised more than $220 million to date and the new round values the company at more than $500 million.

Monarch’s flagship tractor, the MK-V, is a fully autonomous vehicle the company launched in 2022 capable of programmatically operating in the field under the supervision of an AI management suite called WingspanAI. The platform provides farmers with tremendous amounts of data about their farms, vehicle positioning data, crop image collection and automated operations planning in one app.

“Driven by artificial intelligence and electrification, agriculture has arrived as the next frontier for the energy transition and sustainability movement,” said Monarch co-founder and Chief Executive Praveen Penmetsa. “Agriculture is our planet’s most important and overlooked sector, and those in the industry have faced significant challenges, including farm profitability, labor shortages, worker safety, government headwinds, data availability, and scrutiny for sustainability demands.”

WingspanAI provides the ability to manage an entire fleet of tractors at once by allowing users to visualize potential routes they will take through fields and understand how they will interact with crops and equipment. It will even manage and provide records of operations and include previews for upcoming operations and past events, including alerts about current conditions.

Drivers can still ride on the tractors while they are in the field for potentially tricky maneuvers, but the MK-V is fully autonomous and capable of following set routes and visible crop rows. However, if something begins to go wrong, the operator can take over at any point.

Since the launch of the MK-V, Monarch says that it has delivered more than 400 tractors to customers. Their work has resulted in more than 850 tons of environmentally harmful CO2 emissions offset, compared with fossil fuel-burning variants, across more than 42,000 hours of operations.

The company says its tractors have been in operation across 12 states and in three countries. They have been used for various agricultural venues including vineyards, dairy, berries, orchards and land management.

“Monarch’s application of AI and introduction of a smart, electric platform will deliver robust social, economic, and environmental returns to farmers,” added Penmetsa.

The company said it will use the new funding to continue to double down on the use of AI to help farmers better manage their tractors and fields, including the development of AutoDrive, Monarch’s autonomous operations feature. By developing the feature for more markets and types of agricultural businesses, the company said, it will be able to expand its domestic and global footprint and reach new customers with its platform.

Photo: Monarch Tractor