Monarch Tractors just got a supercharge with its recent $20 million Series A round.
The international fundraising spree gives the four-year-old electric tractor startup a boost.
And it wasn’t just the Tesla lovers of the world getting in on the electrification investing excitement.
Global tractor makers, including CNH Industrial and India’s VST Tiller Tractors, got in on the action, placing bets that the future of electrification for agriculture equipment will come sooner rather than later.
Coming in at a cool retail price of $50,000, Monarch Tractors have a peak horsepower of 70 with a 2,200-pound lift capacity and can run for up to 10 hours with a full charge.
Data icing on the electrification cake: The tractor fleet also serves as a data collector and insights provider. Monarch hopes to drive revenue-generating data decisions with their innovative equipment like real-time alerts and field monitoring capabilities.
Labor saver: Oh, and that whole ‘self-driving’ thing. The ‘driver optional’ feature lets an operator manage a five to seven tractor fleet remotely. Plus, in an era where ag labor can be hard to find, it lessens the burden of a skeleton crew on the farm, saving time and allowing more value-add work to be done.
Monarch’s future: With pre-orders rolling in, the company will build a micro-assembly line in their hometown, Livermore, California. A ‘pilot series’ of tractors will head to large vineyard farmers in California, Oregon, and Washington.