All Rize. Founded in 2022, they’re a sustainable rice platform working to decarbonize rice cultivation across SEA. Now, they’ve just raised a $31M Series B in a mix of debt and equity.

• Here’s a Scoop. Rize was formed through a joint venture between Temasek, 100x100, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

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Investor check. BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts led the $20M equity raise, along with The Rockefeller Foundation, Temasek, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. 

• Meanwhile, BIDV, Temasek Foundation, and UOB participated in the $11M debt raise.

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🍚 Every grain counts

It may be hard to believe, but the conventional way to cultivate rice (by flooding rice paddies) accounts for 12% of global methane emissions. 

• Rize helps smallholder farmers deploy science-backed farming practices, such as the alternate wetting and drying (AWD) method, to address this problem.
• This process involves periodically draining rice fields once the water reaches a certain threshold, then reflooding the soil. 

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🌾 Some more detail

They say this method can reduce emissions by up to 50%, cut water use by 20 to 30%, and increase farmers' income by up to 30% with no reduction in yield. 

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Run the numbers! They currently work with 17K smallholder farmers across over 50K hectares in Vietnam and Indonesia.

• Oh, and they’ve also shipped 1.5K metric tons of low-emission rice to Europe, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

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😎 2040 vision

Rize hopes to eliminate 500M metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2040. 

• They’ll use the fresh capital to deepenfield-to-buyer traceability, expand sustainable farming practices to new markets, advance carbon certification, and build AI tools and partner access across the value chain.