Six years ago, three car guys and a winemaker set out to make an autonomous, electric tractor that could help American farmers at a time when profitability has been declining. Today, Livermore, California-based Monarch Tractor said that it had raised $133 million led by global impact fund Astanor and HH-CTBC Partnership, a fund co-led by Foxconn. The funding values Monarch at $518 million, up from $271 million.
The company said that the investment is the largest-ever raise in agricultural robotics, and that it will help Monarch begin selling its tractors internationally, starting in Europe.
“We can now execute our plans,” cofounder and CEO Praveen Penmetsa – one of the car guys – told Forbes. “We are the first mover. We are still the only commercially available electric tractor.”
The company currently has deployed more than 400 tractors in 13 states, plus one in Canada.
Last summer, Forbes profiled Monarch Tractor as part of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups list of companies most likely to reach a $1 billion valuation. In 2023, Monarch booked $37 million in revenue, up from $22 million in 2022 and just $5 million in 2021. It expects to reach $112 million this year.
That’s slower growth that Penmetsa had expected last year, when the startup forecast a revenue increase of three- to five-fold for 2023. But it’s been a tough year for agricultural equipment companies as high interest rates have caused farmers to delay buying new equipment.
The silver lining, Penmetsa argued, is that Monarch should be able to increase its sales by helping farmers save on operations while times are hard. “It’s been a tough and challenging environment for farmers and for agriculture,” Penmetsa said. “The slowdown is affecting some of the larger players and what their priorities are. This might be an opportunity for Monarch to scale, with capital in hand, while the rest of the industry is thinking about how to save money.”
Its autonomous, electric tractors save on the cost of diesel fuel
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