Indianapolis’ Athian Announces $18M in Farmer Payments and closes $4M Series A

Indianapolis startup Athian announced it has closed a $4 million Series A funding round, while also disclosing it has paid farmers $18 million in rewards for verified greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Founded in 2022, Athian helps connect downstream food companies with on‑farm practices that reduce emissions, enabling them to buy those verified reductions as insets to help meet Scope 3 reporting targets. 

New investors in the Series A include Ajinomoto Group Ventures, Chipotle’s Cultivate Next fund, and Mondelēz International’s Sustainable Futures impact platform. Existing backers named in the announcement include protein producers, ingredient makers, and agricultural technology and services companies such as Elanco, DSM-Firmenich Ventures, Newtrient, LLC, Australian Agriculture Company, Tyson Ventures, and California Dairies. 

“Athian’s original vision was to bring together companies from every step in the food supply chain to deliver a more resilient and sustainable product to consumers,” said Paul Myer, Athian founder and CEO. “Our new funding partners are helping us achieve that vision by supporting our industry-wide effort to give credit to farmers, processors and food companies for their sustainability efforts.”

Athian reported its first sale of verified insets to Dairy Farmers of America in January 2024. Since then, the company says it has added protocols, including digester cap and flare systems and additional feed ingredient options, and expanded its scientific advisory board to include expertise of the Australian market. The company also announced a memorandum of understanding with the National Milk Producers Federation and California Dairies to develop a carbon intensity protocol.

Scope 3 emissions - indirect emissions from a company’s supply chain - have become a focus for food and consumer goods companies seeking to meet corporate climate targets. Athian’s model is one approach to addressing those emissions: aggregating on‑farm data, verifying outcomes against science‑based protocols, and selling the resulting climate “insets” to brands that then report the reductions in their supply‑chain accounting.

Investors highlighted the potential for such models to scale on‑farm action while providing financial returns to producers. “Chipotle’s Cultivate Next investment in Athian furthers our mission to Cultivate a Better World by addressing emissions from areas like animal agriculture and developing innovative solutions that will make lasting change,” stated Curt Garner, President, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, Chipotle. “By 2030, we aim to report a 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions from a 2019 base year and with tools that incentivize on-farm GHG reductions, it will help companies like ours that are sourcing the materials to achieve these ambitious goals.”

Athian will also use the Series A to enable cost- and claim-sharing among supply‑chain partners to make emissions reductions more accessible for mid‑ and small‑sized companies. The company did not disclose valuation or revenue figures in its announcement.