CarbonFarm raises €7m Series A to measure methane coming off rice paddies
Paris based CarbonFarm has raised a €7m Series A led by Colam Impact to measure and certify methane reductions in rice farming across 19 countries.
CarbonFarm, a Paris based company that measures and verifies emissions reductions in rice farming, announced a €7 million Series A on 13 October 2026. The round was oversubscribed and led by Colam Impact, with Proparco, Suma Capital, elea, Working Capital Fund, Albo and Bpifrance coming in as new investors. Existing backers Serena and makesense, through Racine², and Techmind also reinvested. The company was founded by Vassily Carantino, co-founder and chief executive, and James Hastwell, co-founder and chief technology officer.
The product is digital monitoring, reporting and verification for rice. CarbonFarm combines AI-driven analysis of satellite imagery with field data collection tools and greenhouse gas modelling, so that what happens in a paddy can be tracked and emissions quantified at field level. EU-Startups reports that the underlying tools were built with Cornell University, INRAE and the European Space Agency. The company operates in 19 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, working with rice producers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, NGOs, governments and local project developers.
Most of the abatement comes from alternate wetting and drying, where a flooded paddy is drained periodically rather than kept under water all season, which suppresses the methane producing bacteria in the soil. CarbonFarm also works with the system of rice intensification and with direct seeded rice. Green Queen reports that its largest markets are Vietnam, India and Thailand, and names Mars Food, Diageo, Google, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Action Against Hunger among the organisations it works with. Flooded rice is one of agriculture's largest single sources of methane.
The money goes to strengthening the company's presence in Asia, Africa and Europe, accelerating expansion into Latin America, and building out both the technology and the capacity to develop, finance and certify rice projects and connect them to corporate supply chains and regulated carbon markets. “Scale will not come from replacing local value-chain players; it will come from equipping them,” said Carantino. Benjamine Friderich, investment director at Colam Impact, said the company “is building the enabling infrastructure for one of the largest untapped decarbonisation opportunities globally.” EU-Startups describes Colam Impact as the impact investment arm of French family holding company Colam Entreprendre.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: look at who paid before you look at the technology. This round is led by the impact arm of a family holding company and filled out by the French development finance institution Proparco, the state bank Bpifrance and the impact investor elea. That is mandate driven capital rather than generalist venture money, and in agricultural carbon it is currently the deeper pocket. Three things follow. First, sell the instrument, not the credit. A business that measures, certifies and connects gets paid whether or not the credit price recovers, and the credit price is the one variable no founder controls. Second, the moat is the method, not the model. Tools validated with Cornell, INRAE and the European Space Agency are what a corporate buyer's sustainability team can defend to an auditor, and that validation takes years a competitor cannot compress with a better algorithm. Third, read the line about equipping local value chain players as a go to market design and not as a sentiment. Nineteen countries out of a Paris office only works if cooperatives and local developers do the field work and buy the instrument, and that is what keeps cost per hectare low enough for the unit economics to close. If your plan needs your own people on every farm, run the arithmetic again before you raise.
CarbonFarm raises €7m Series A to measure methane coming off rice paddies
Colam Impact leads the round, with Proparco, Bpifrance and elea joining. The Paris company uses satellite imagery and AI to quantify how much methane a rice field actually stops emitting.
CarbonFarm, a Paris based company that measures and verifies emissions reductions in rice farming, announced a €7 million Series A on 13 October 2026. The round was oversubscribed and led by Colam Impact, with Proparco, Suma Capital, elea, Working Capital Fund, Albo and Bpifrance coming in as new investors. Existing backers Serena and makesense, through Racine², and Techmind also reinvested. The company was founded by Vassily Carantino, co-founder and chief executive, and James Hastwell, co-founder and chief technology officer.
The product is digital monitoring, reporting and verification for rice. CarbonFarm combines AI-driven analysis of satellite imagery with field data collection tools and greenhouse gas modelling, so that what happens in a paddy can be tracked and emissions quantified at field level. EU-Startups reports that the underlying tools were built with Cornell University, INRAE and the European Space Agency. The company operates in 19 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, working with rice producers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, NGOs, governments and local project developers.
Most of the abatement comes from alternate wetting and drying, where a flooded paddy is drained periodically rather than kept under water all season, which suppresses the methane producing bacteria in the soil. CarbonFarm also works with the system of rice intensification and with direct seeded rice. Green Queen reports that its largest markets are Vietnam, India and Thailand, and names Mars Food, Diageo, Google, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and Action Against Hunger among the organisations it works with. Flooded rice is one of agriculture's largest single sources of methane.
The money goes to strengthening the company's presence in Asia, Africa and Europe, accelerating expansion into Latin America, and building out both the technology and the capacity to develop, finance and certify rice projects and connect them to corporate supply chains and regulated carbon markets. “Scale will not come from replacing local value-chain players; it will come from equipping them,” said Carantino. Benjamine Friderich, investment director at Colam Impact, said the company “is building the enabling infrastructure for one of the largest untapped decarbonisation opportunities globally.” EU-Startups describes Colam Impact as the impact investment arm of French family holding company Colam Entreprendre.
Why it matters for AgTech founders: look at who paid before you look at the technology. This round is led by the impact arm of a family holding company and filled out by the French development finance institution Proparco, the state bank Bpifrance and the impact investor elea. That is mandate driven capital rather than generalist venture money, and in agricultural carbon it is currently the deeper pocket. Three things follow. First, sell the instrument, not the credit. A business that measures, certifies and connects gets paid whether or not the credit price recovers, and the credit price is the one variable no founder controls. Second, the moat is the method, not the model. Tools validated with Cornell, INRAE and the European Space Agency are what a corporate buyer's sustainability team can defend to an auditor, and that validation takes years a competitor cannot compress with a better algorithm. Third, read the line about equipping local value chain players as a go to market design and not as a sentiment. Nineteen countries out of a Paris office only works if cooperatives and local developers do the field work and buy the instrument, and that is what keeps cost per hectare low enough for the unit economics to close. If your plan needs your own people on every farm, run the arithmetic again before you raise.
