Congratulations to the incredible team at Monarch Tractor for making the Forbes Next Billion Dollar Startup. We are thrilled and honored to be a part of the journey of innovating farming and agtech with their AI powered autonomous EV tractors. Empowering farmers and saving our planet = Incredible Mission

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Monarch Tractor Identified as Ag Unicorn by Forbes – Monarch Tractor blog

Monarch Tractor was included on Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startup list for many reasons, from its breakthrough technology (all-electric, self-driving) to the traction it already has in the market, with $22 million in revenue and 3-5X expected increase this year.

Monarch Co-founder and CEO, Praveen Penmesta, said it best, “We need to change so that farmers don’t feel like there’s no future in farming.”

Each year Forbes looks at the field of the most competitive startups and selects 25 that it believes are the next big thing. With a 60% success rate, it has an impressive track record of identifying high achievers. Recognizing Monarch Tractor’s efforts to help solve some of agriculture’s most difficult problems, Forbes named Monarch to its 2023 Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups list.

“Diesel tractors are a major source of pollution in agriculture, and farmers have long struggled to hire enough workers. Monarch’s machines promise to solve both problems.” — Amy Feldman, Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups List Editor 

From equity funding, current valuations, and revenue projections to what Monarch is accomplishing for farmers and the environment; don’t miss this short documentary on the heart and soul of Monarch Tractor and its innovations that are helping elevate the world’s farmers into a happier, healthier, cleaner, safer, and more profitable lifestyle.

Monarch CEO Praveen Penmetsa expects sales to triple or more this year as it gets its autonomous electric tractors in the hands of farmers, earning the Livermore, California-based company a coveted spot on our annual list of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups. But launching an agricultural equipment company is tough. It is capital-intensive, and cash-strapped farmers tend to be a conservative lot resistant to change. But Livermore-based Monarch, which has raised $116 million in equity from investors and reached a valuation of $271 million at its most recent equity funding in November 2021, seems to have hit a tipping point. Last year, it booked $22 million in revenue, up from $5 million in 2021.

This year Penmetsa expects revenue to increase three- to fivefold. That would bring it above $66 million, and possibly over $100 million, as the number of its tractors in the field goes from more than 100 to 1,000. As it expands, Penmetsa expects that more of its revenue will come from software subscriptions (up to $8,376 per tractor per year) that give farmers real-time alerts about sick plants and safety risks, plus gathering and crunching a ton of data to improve crop yields.