Rize Secures $31 Million Series B Funding to Expand Sustainable Rice Farming in Southeast Asia

The Rize team

Rize, a Singapore-based sustainable rice platform, has secured US$31 million in Series B financing to expand its work with smallholder farmers in Vietnam and Indonesia and push further into traceable, low-emission rice exports.

The round comprises US$20 million in equity led by BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts, with participation from The Rockefeller Foundation, Temasek, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

The remaining US$11 million comes as debt financing from UOB, BIDV, and Temasek Foundation.

This round comes two years after the firm closed its US$14 million in Series A, co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, GenZero, Temasek, and Wavemaker Impact.

The fresh capital raise brings Rize’s total funding to US$47 million. The company said it will use the capital to expand export market linkages, improve field-to-buyer traceability, build AI tools for farmers and field teams, advance carbon certification, and enter additional markets in Southeast Asia.

Rize currently works with 17,000 smallholder farmers across more than 50,000 hectares in Vietnam and Indonesia. It says it has a 250-person field, agronomy, and technology team, and has shipped 1,500 metric tonnes of low-emission rice to buyers in Europe, Canada, Australia, and Singapore.

The company aims to reach more than 300,000 hectares and over 150,000 smallholder farmers by 2030.

Why rice is now a climate finance target

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population, but it is also one of agriculture’s most difficult climate problems. Flooded paddy fields create anaerobic conditions that produce methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

Rize cites estimates that rice cultivation accounts for roughly 12 per cent of global methane emissions, comparable to the climate footprint of the aviation industry. The issue is especially material in Asia, which produces and consumes around 90 per cent of the world’s rice, according to the International Rice Research Institute.

For Southeast Asia, the problem is not abstract. Vietnam and Thailand are among the world’s major rice exporters, while Indonesia remains one of the largest rice producers and consumers. Governments in the region are under pressure to balance food security, farmer incomes, water use, and emissions reduction, a combination that has attracted climate investors but remains difficult to execute at farm level.

Rize’s core intervention is Alternate Wetting and Drying, or AWD, an irrigation method supported by the International Rice Research Institute and CGIAR. Instead of keeping paddy fields continuously flooded, farmers periodically allow fields to dry before re-irrigating them. Rize says the method can cut methane emissions by up to 50 per cent, reduce water use by 20 to 30 per cent, and raise farmer income by up to 30 per cent without reducing yields.

Also Read: Climate tech’s shift from doing good to doing well

Those figures are meaningful, but the commercial challenge lies in consistent adoption. AWD requires farmer training, water control, monitoring, and proof that practices were followed. In fragmented smallholder markets, that is often where climate agriculture projects fail.

From agronomy to export markets

Rize’s model attempts to link farm-level practice change with export-grade procurement and carbon finance. The company works with smallholders on AWD adoption, residue compliance, and traceability, while connecting output to buyers seeking lower-emission rice.

Maximum Residue Limit compliance is a key part of that strategy. Export markets in Europe, Japan, Singapore, and other higher-value destinations have strict requirements on pesticide and chemical residues. For smallholders, meeting those standards can be difficult without advisory support, input discipline, and predictable procurement.

The company says its rice is traceable to field level. That matters because low-emission commodity claims are increasingly scrutinized by buyers, regulators, and carbon market participants. Traceability is also becoming more important as large food companies face pressure to report Scope 3 emissions in agricultural supply chains.

“This investment allows us to unlock the next phase of growth by further expanding scale, investing in market linkage and exports, and cutting-edge technologies to deliver better decision-making, better productivity, and better outcomes across the whole value chain,” said Dhruv Sawhney, co-founder and CEO of Rize.

Rize emerged in late 2022 from a collaboration involving Temasek, 100×100, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with 100×100 involved in the early build. Its rapid scale-up, from launch to 17,000 farmers in roughly four years, reflects both investor interest in climate-linked agriculture and the sizeable opportunity in Southeast Asian rice systems.

Carbon claims face a higher bar

The company is also building a carbon credit pathway. Its Sustainable Rice Production in Southeast and South Asia project has received a BeZero Carbon ex ante rating of A.pre, which indicates a high likelihood that future credits will represent one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent avoided or removed. Rize said the project is progressing through Gold Standard certification, with more than one million credits forecast over the next five years.

That will be closely watched. Carbon markets have faced sustained criticism over project quality, additionality, permanence, and verification. Agriculture projects are particularly complex because emissions vary by soil, water regime, farmer behavior, and local climate conditions. An ex ante rating is not the same as issued credits, and buyers will need confidence that claimed reductions are measurable and durable.

Still, rice methane reduction has become one of the more credible areas of agricultural climate mitigation because the mechanism is relatively well understood: less continuous flooding generally means less methane. The harder question is whether a company can verify and monetize that across thousands of smallholder plots without creating unsustainable monitoring costs.

Alexandre Martin-Min, Head of Natural Capital and Impact Investments at BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts, said Rize sits at “the intersection of sustainable agriculture, carbon finance, and verified commodity trade”. That intersection is also where competition is likely to intensify.

A crowded but underbuilt market

Rize does not fit neatly into one category. It overlaps with agritech advisory platforms, sustainable commodity traders, carbon project developers, and supply-chain traceability providers. In Southeast Asia, companies such as AgriG8 have also targeted lower-emission rice and carbon-linked farmer programs, while broader agritech players offer farm management, input, and financing tools. Globally, firms including Indigo Ag and other carbon farming platforms have tried to connect regenerative practices with corporate climate demand.

Large agribusiness groups may prove just as relevant as startup competitors. Commodity traders and food companies already control procurement relationships, logistics, and buyer access. If low-emission rice becomes a premium procurement category, incumbents may build or acquire similar capabilities.

Also Read: Funded: SEA climate tech has US$1.1B and a problem no one wants to name

Rize’s advantage, if it can sustain it, lies in combining field operations with export channels and verification infrastructure. The debt portion of the round also suggests lenders see some asset-backed or trade-linked potential in the model, not just venture-style growth.

The next test is execution. Moving from 50,000 hectares to 300,000 hectares will require not only capital but local partnerships, irrigation coordination, buyer demand, and farmer trust. For Southeast Asia’s rice sector, the stakes are clear: decarbonization cannot come at the cost of food security or smallholder livelihoods. Rize’s new funding gives it a larger platform to prove that those goals can coexist.

The post Rize raises US$31M to scale low-emission rice farming in Southeast Asia appeared first on e27.

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