Rice startup raises $31M to dry paddies and cut a big slice of farm methane

Rize's Series B funds a method that floods and drains rice fields to cut methane 30-70% while saving water, now spanning 50,000 hectares.

Singapore-based Rize raised $31 million in Series B funding, bringing its total to $47 million. The round pairs a $20 million equity deal led by BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts — with The Rockefeller Foundation, Temasek, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures — alongside $11 million in debt from UOB, BIDV, and the Temasek foundation. The company, led by CEO and cofounder Dhruv Sawhney, works with 17,000 smallholder farmers across 50,000 hectares in Vietnam and Indonesia.

Rize's method centers on alternate wetting and drying (AWD), which drains and refloods rice fields rather than keeping them permanently submerged. Rice paddies account for roughly 10-12% of global methane emissions, and AWD can reduce those emissions by 30-70% without hurting yield while cutting water use. Rize backs this with a 50-person agronomist team and a mobile app for field data and measurement, reporting, and verification; its production project holds a strong rating from BeZero Carbon. It says it has shipped 1,500 tons of low-emission rice to Europe, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

Rice feeds billions, and irrigation for it is among the heaviest agricultural draws on freshwater. A technique that keeps yields steady while using less water and emitting less methane makes staple food production cheaper on inputs and lighter on the commons — if it scales.

Rize aims to reach 150,000 farmers across 300,000 hectares by the end of the decade. That target, and the AWD reduction ranges, are goals and general figures rather than verified totals — worth tracking as the farmer base grows.

Source: AgFunder News