“For the first time in a century, the engines that power our food system are being fundamentally reimagined - from noisy, fuel-hungry machines to intelligent, electric workhorses built for the next generation”
While cities electrify and the skies prepare for hydrogen flight, the agri fields remain powered by outdated diesel machines - noisy, polluting, and increasingly uneconomical. For decades, the economics of farming have been under pressure. Rising diesel prices and maintenance costs have steadily eaten into margins, especially for small and mid-sized farmers across India and the Global South. While the broader EV movement has surged, the tractor has remained stubbornly tied to fossil fuels - held back by range anxiety, performance concerns, and steep upfront costs.
What if tractors could be powerful, affordable, and clean-without compromising on performance or cost? At pi Ventures, we believe this future is closer than ever. We are thrilled to announce our investment in Moonrider, a deeptech company building from-scratch electric tractors that deliver diesel-like power with dramatically lower cost of ownership.
At the heart of Moonrider’s breakthrough is a vertically integrated EV platform purpose-built for agriculture. Rather than retrofitting a diesel chassis with batteries, the team started from a clean slate-designing a high-voltage drivetrain, immersion-cooled battery systems, and in-house BMS to deliver high torque at low power draw. The result is a set of electric tractors that achieve near price parity with diesel, while slashing operating costs by over 70% leading to ~ 2lacs annual saving for a small tractor (27hp). These savings translate into real profit for farmers and real margin for fleet operators running rental services.
Moonrider’s electric tractor is engineered to hit a narrow but critical sweet spot: it delivers the low running costs typical of EVs without a significant increase in upfront cost compared to diesel tractors. Achieving this balance requires solving a tough engineering problem - designing a battery pack that’s both affordable and long-lasting, a durable powertrain that matches or exceeds the torque and performance of ICE tractors, and ensuring that the range per charge and total vehicle life are comparable to traditional models. Hitting all these targets simultaneously is what makes the Moonrider solution technically distinctive and commercially viable.
What’s most exciting is that Moonrider isn’t just a prototype on paper - it’s a road-ready, fully certified platform, already in pilots. With active MoUs signed with large players, the company is set to expand rapidly over the next 12–24 months.
Moonrider was founded in 2023 by Anoop & Ravi. With past experience in automobiles across Toyota, TATA & Volvo, they bring a rare combination of deep product intuition, cost-focused engineering, and grassroots understanding of farm economics. Every decision at Moonrider ties back to a single question: does this make farming more profitable? That clarity of purpose has enabled the team to move fast, stay frugal, and focus relentlessly on delivering real economic value to farmers and fleet owners.
At pi Ventures, we back category-defining companies solving foundational problems through deeptech. Moonrider is not just electrifying tractors - it’s redesigning them to make electric the new default. Their platform holds the potential to reshape farming economics, reduce global agricultural emissions, and empower the next generation of rural entrepreneurs with cleaner, more productive tools. We’re proud to be part of this journey.