Monarch Tractor, the California-based agri-tech startup co-founded by Hyderabad-born Praveen Penmetsa, has shut down. On April 3, 2026, the company terminated its entire workforce, vacated its Livermore headquarters, and left more than 110 unsold electric tractors behind — marking the end of one of the most heavily funded agricultural robotics ventures in history.
The company had raised over $240 million in venture capital, including a $133 million Series C in August 2024 — at the time the largest single fundraise in agricultural robotics. Its flagship product, the MK-V, was marketed as the world’s first fully electric, “driver-optional” smart tractor and was named one of Time magazine’s best inventions of 2023.
It never delivered on that promise.
In September 2025, multiple dealerships filed federal lawsuits alleging the tractors were unable to operate autonomously as advertised. Burks Tractor, an Idaho dealership, paid $773,088 for ten units and alleged in its complaint that the machines “did not perform as represented” and that Monarch’s own sales team had admitted in writing that the tractors’ autonomy “was limited.” CNH Industrial, a strategic investor, recorded a $62 million impairment charge tied to its Monarch stake in Q4 2025.
“It totally failed. It was actually quite dangerous.” — Patrick O’Connor, California winemaker and early Monarch customer
nationaltoday.com
Penmetsa, 45, was born and raised in Hyderabad and comes from a family of rice farmers in Telangana. The idea for an autonomous tractor was sparked during a 2012 visit home, when persistent power cuts led him to imagine battery-powered farm equipment that could double as rural energy storage. He even built a prototype and tested it in Maharajpet, a village near Hyderabad, with USAID funding. “One day I want to bring it to India,” he told a publication in 2023. “And see it on the rice farms.”
That day never came. By early 2026, Foxconn — Monarch’s sole manufacturing partner — had sold its Ohio factory to SoftBank for an AI data centre, cutting off production entirely. A last-minute pivot to a software licensing model failed to secure a runway. In January 2026, the startup’s own legal team filed motions to withdraw, stating the company would no longer pay their fees. Co-founder Carlo Mondavi publicly confirmed he had left approximately a year earlier over disagreements with Penmetsa, adding that the tractors “had real first-gen challenges, and farmers shouldn’t be the ones carrying that burden.”
Monarch’s assets and intellectual property are expected to be sold. A federal court has consolidated the dealer lawsuits, with mediation scheduled for July 2026.
