• Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
    1. Technology

    Monarch Tractor Secures Funding Boost for Agriculture Technology

    July 29, 2024
    Funds will expand the company's WingspanAI and autonomous features.
    Related To: Monarch Tractor
    Monarch Tractor
    Monarch Tractor's MK-V all electric tractor with autonomous and data driven features. Utilized in specialty crops such as orchards, vineyards and also used for land management.
    Monarch Tractor's MK-V all electric tractor with autonomous and data driven features. Utilized in specialty crops such as orchards, vineyards and also used for land management.

    By: Monarch Tractor

    Monarch Tractor has raised $133 million in additional funding. The company manufactures the MK-V fully electric, driver-optional smart tractor and Wingspan Ag Intelligence (WingspanAI) farm management platform. The company will use the additional funding to expand its AI product, including the development of Autodrive, its autonomous operations feature.

    To date, the company has raised over $220 million to enable clean, efficient, and economically viable solutions as well as expanded into various agricultural markets such as vineyards, dairy, berries, orchards, and land management across 12 states and three countries. 

    "Driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and electrification, agriculture has arrived as the next frontier for the energy transition and sustainability movement," said Praveen Penmetsa, CEO and co-founder of Monarch Tractor, in a statement. "Agriculture is our planet's most important and overlooked sector, and those in the industry have faced significant challenges...Monarch's application of AI and introduction of a smart, electric platform will deliver robust social, economic, and environmental returns to farmers."

    Tractors have been the center of all farm operations for several decades. Yet, they've been underutilized as a hub for robotics innovation and farmer payback, according to the company.

    In December 2022, Monarch released its first fully electric, driver-optional, smart tractor, the MK-V. Since then, the deployment of more than 400 MK-V's have resulted in more than 850 tonnes of CO2 emissions offset across 42,000 hours of tractor operations.

    Monarch's WingspanAI app is equipping farmers with access to on-farm data, integrating a farm management system, vehicle position tracking, crop image collection, and automated operations planning into one platform, according to the company.