It has taken the team of scientists at Ceradis more than a decade to develop a line of earth-friendly agriculture products. Now, with several on the market, the Dutch company has raised €9 million ($10 million) to commercialize a new biofungicide that prevents crop disease.
Conducting due diligence in ag biotech startups has many similarities to other categories, such as questions around the team and market size, but biotech is inherently different than developing a piece of equipment or a digital application.
Pontifax AgTech targets returns of three times its investments and sources close to the deal said it is likely the Precision Biosciences exit will come close.
The THRIVE Innovation Summit is held annually in Silicon Valley and each year attracts 250+ agribusiness leaders, investors, agtech and foodtech startups, and California and Midwest growers. The summit is a unique opportunity to meet and hear from our THRIVE Top 50, fifty companies shaping the future of the agriculture supply chain as well as leaders of Fortune 500 food and agriculture corporations implementing these disruptive technologies.
Matt Crisp is cofounder and CEO of Benson Hill Biosystems, a crop genomics platform using computational biology and gene editing. Here he writes about the startup's evolution and transition to now serving a broad range of clients across the food system.
Nitrogen fertilizer is widely used in row crop production and is a key expense farmers face each year. But often that fertilizer is wasted, washing away after heavy rains or leaching due to irrigation or poor soil quality.
Through the partnership with agtech startup Benson Hill Biosystems, AB InBev is hoping to equip farmers with more productive and sustainable barley varieties.
Ostara, a nutrient management solutions company, has closed a new round of equity financing co-led by existing investors VantagePoint Capital Partners and the food-focused European family office Wheatsheaf Group.
This week, two startups using different biotechnological approaches to improve the efficiency of row crop farming, raised venture capital funding totaling $15.4 million.
This week we spoke with Belgian animal health startup ViroVet to learn more about its mission to tackle health and wellness in the livestock industry with novel vaccine and antibiotic reduction technology.
There is a growing number of dairy tech startups on the market but there are challenges impacting dairy farmers’ ability and desire to adopt these innovative tools.
Bioceres, the Argentinian ag biotech business, is set to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) early next year through a reverse listing with a company controlled by Uruguyuan presidential hopeful Juan Sartori.
Trace Genomics has built the first scalable soil microbiome test to help farmers predict soil disease, soil health, and crop quality, using high-throughput DNA sequencing and machine learning.
The round coincides with a new partnership with Penny Newman to launch a new soil amendment product onto the market that has the potential to reduce nitrogen application by 30% over 3 growing seasons.
Dutch startup In Ovo has completed a Series A raise with Singapore-based disruptive food system venture fund VisVires New Protein and global specialty chemicals company Evonik.
The startup, which has focused on the cosmetics industry for its first product line is set to develop products for the nutraceutical, food and beverage industries too, such as gelatin, a form of collagen often found in sweets.
Since raising the first round of Series A funding, SafeTraces gained particular traction in tracing tropical oils to determine the sustainability of the sourcing practices, and also tracing ammonium nitrate fertilizers that can be used in explosives.
Equinom, an Israeli startup using computational biology to breed crops with improved characteristics without any genetic manipulation, has raised $4 million in a bridge funding round.
