DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Monarch Tractor

monarchtractor.com

Livermore, CA-based company behind the MK-V, the world's first fully electric autonomous Smart tractor.

Track Monarch Tractor
Founded
2018
HQ
Livermore, CA
Status
Wound down

The verified answer

As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies Monarch Tractor: 1 model, 6 deployments across 4 regions, $220.0M raised, 2 active incidents. 6 sources back the record.

CategoryAgricultural robots

Funding

$220.0M

Models

1

Deployments

6

Employees

213

Overview

Livermore, CA-based company behind the MK-V, the world's first fully electric autonomous Smart tractor. Co-founded by CEO Praveen Penmetsa and Mark Schwager, Monarch Tractor raised 33M in Series C funding, the largest in agricultural robotics history, bringing total funding to over 40M at a 18M valuation. The MK-V is a driver-optional autonomous electric tractor for precision farming.

Verified record

Verified deployments
6 deployments on file
Active incidents
2 incidents on file

Valuation of record

DEPLOY VERIFIED
$1.3B (reported, approximate)as of Jan 2025

Priced roundSeries C post-money

See the full valuations ranking →

Key facts

Product

MK-V, billed as the world's first electric autonomous tractor.

CEO

Praveen Penmetsa

Co-founder

Mark Schwager

Applications

Vineyards, orchards, dairies, municipal operations

Operation modes

In-seat driver or fully autonomous.

California CORE subsidy (2025)

Up to $68,750 off retail price.

Shutdown (Apr 2026)

Ceased tractor business; core tech and patents bought by Caterpillar.

Data & sources

Press releases

1

News coverage

3

Web sources

2

6 sources backing this record.View all →

Models (1)

View all models →

Retired

MK-V

Monarch Tractor (founded 2018, Livermore, California; founder and CEO Praveen Penmetsa) built the MK-V, a fully battery-electric, driver-optional smart tractor with a WingspanAI fleet-management and remote-supervision layer. The registry records it at commercial maturity to reflect a genuine historical peak: the MK-V shipped to paying commercial customers starting in December 2022, the first being Constellation Brands, which took six tractors for its To Kalon vineyard, following an earlier 2021 pilot at Wente. Monarch raised more than $220 million (some reports up to roughly $251 million), anchored by a $133 million Series C in July 2024. The lifecycle state is discontinued, recording a major correction to the originating dispatch's framing of an active, growing manufacturer: Monarch collapsed through 2025, with its Foxconn manufacturing arrangement ending when the Ohio plant was sold to SoftBank in August 2025, layoffs and a shutdown warning in November 2025, a pivot to roughly 70 percent licensing revenue, and finally an assignment for the benefit of creditors. Its assets and intellectual property, including the software-defined vehicle platform and perception stack, were acquired by Caterpillar around April 14, 2026, in an asset and technology purchase with undisclosed terms rather than a going-concern acquisition. On autonomy, marketing of a fully autonomous tractor overstated reality: full autonomy was confined to a narrow dairy feed-pushing use case in outdoor feed lanes, while general field work was driver-assist with an operator aboard, and an Idaho dealer sued in September 2025 alleging the tractors could not operate autonomously, with Monarch's sales team reportedly conceding the limits in writing.

agricultureView model →

Partnerships

Every company Monarch Tractor has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.

2 total2 operating1 ended

Most-frequent partners

  1. 1Caterpillar1× joint
  2. 2The Walt Disney Company1× joint

Most recent

  1. Caterpillar acquires Monarch Tractor assets2026-04-15
    with Caterpillaroperating
  2. Monarch Tractor x Disney2024-01-01
    with The Walt Disney Companyoperating

Relationships

TThe Walt Disney CompanyCustomerCCaterpillarCustomerMMonarch TractorCustomer

Claims ledger

Public, dated claims by Monarch Tractor, each tracked against the evidence. Status is a DEPLOY assessment from primary sources: verified means an independent source confirms it; contradicted means one refutes it; open means the outcome is not yet determinable. Every entry keeps its verbatim quote and source so you can check the call yourself.

Claim Integrity: 67% (2 of 3 resolved claims verified; 3 tracked)
  • VerifiedCustomer · claimed 2026-04-14
    “Monarch Tractor Shuts Down Operations”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcecite this claim
  • VerifiedCapability · claimed 2026-01-01
    “The world's first driver-optional, data driven, and 100% electric tractor”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
  • ContradictedCapacity · claimed 2023-01-01 · deadline 2024-12-31
    “The company expects to sell as many as 2,000 tractors by end of next year”

    Monarch never reached 2,000 tractors. Revenue was ~$112M projected for 2024 (Forbes), but Caterpillar acquired Monarch, ending independent operations.

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim

Disagree with a status? Monarch Tractor can submit a correction with evidence and we log the response on the record. Methodology and the full industry ledger live at /stats/claim-integrity.

Founders (4)

See all founders across the registry →

Former / Previously (4)

Safety record

2 incidents on record (2 serious). Most recent: Apr 2026.

serious
2

Most recent: Apr 2026

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Incidents affecting Monarch Tractor (2)

Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Operator customers (1)

Recent coverage

Monarch Tractor in third-party press

Monarch Tractor's collapse ends with acquisition by Caterpillar

Apr 15, 2026

Monarch Tractor shuts down after raising 40M

Apr 8, 2026

Monarch Tractor Announces 33M Series C Funding - Largest Ever in Agricultural Robotics

Jan 1, 2025

Peer companies

Mentioned on (14)

Registry pages whose text names Monarch Tractor.

Robots and products (1)

MK-V