Autonomous electric tractor startup Monarch announced this week that it has raised $133 million through its Series C funding. 

Monarch CEO Praveen Penmetsa told TechCrunch that the funding, led by agri-food tech impact firm Astanor and Foxconn affiliate fund HH-CTBC Partnership, would allow them to move ahead with the development of its electric tractor drones. 

The company has currently raised around $220 million to date, almost half of its current $500 million value.

It is understood that Monarch previously secured a $61 million Series B funding in 2021. 

Penmetsa explained that the reason for the gap between the funding rounds was partly because of a much weaker overall investment cadence in agricultural technology, which was recorded by data from PitchBook, making the latter half of 2023 a "challenging time" for Monarch. 

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Monarch's Mission to Develop Tractor Drones

According to Penmetsa, Monarch is integrating autonomous technology on electrically-propelled tractors, with about 400 of them currently used by its customers in the field. 

The Robot Report added that the technology also includes aspects of artificial intelligence (AI)

The Series C funding would help the firm in "producing more tractors," as well as providing sales and service support for its customers and expanding their reach across the United States. 

However, the expansion also meant job cuts, with a revelation that "less than" 15% of the company's workforce has been let go in order to reshuffle its remaining staff, particularly to cover its growing after-sales and customer service departments. 

Penmetsa also admitted that the company has been facing headwinds in diversifying and expanding its clientele from the tractors' exclusive use in farmlands to airports and other non-agricultural applications. 

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