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HomePosts Tagged "funding" (Page 3)
Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India

The fund inflow will be utilised towards committed debt reduction target of $500 Mn by the end of March 23.

UPL Ltd. announced the completion of investment of Rs 1,580 Crore ($200 Mn) by ADIA, TPG and Brookfield for 9.09 per cent stake in UPL Sustainable Agri Solutions Limited (UPL SAS).

The fund inflow will be utilised towards committed debt reduction target of $500 Mn by the end of March’23. UPL SAS will be India’s largest ‘Integrated Agtech Platform’ and will include the India crop protection business, SWAL, Adarsh Farm Services and the Nurture digital platform.

UPL Ltd. is a global provider of sustainable agriculture products & solutions, with annual revenue exceeding US $6 billion. Through OpenAg, UPL is focused on facilitating progress for the entire agricultural value chain. We are building a network that redefines the way an entire industry thinks and works – open to fresh ideas, innovative ways, and new answers as we strive towards our mission to make every single food product more sustainable.

The fund inflow will be utilised towards

Company News, Dairy, Finance, India, Start ups

The company shall use this fund for new product development, infrastructure upgrades, deeper retail penetration, and digital transformation

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) dairy brand, Sid’s Farm has raised $1 million in a bridge round from its customers and their referrals. Being a bootstrapped enterprise driven by organic growth so far, this first fund raising from its high net-worth customers and their referrals is testimony to its brand credibility, superior quality, and unparalleled customer experience. The company shall use this fund for new product development, infrastructure upgrades, deeper retail penetration, and digital transformation in order to gear up for future trajectory.

Founded in 2016 by Dr Kishore Indukuri, Sid’s Farm has now become synonymous with pure milk and clean production. As a brand promise, Sid’s Farm is trying to revolutionise the testing of milk ensuring no traces of antibiotics, hormones, or preservatives in the milk and dairy products. With a model farm, state-of-the-art laboratory, and modern production facility at Chevella near Hyderabad, Sid’s Farm ensures that more than 15,000 customers wake up healthy every day.

The revenue of India’s organised dairy industry is expected to rebound a solid 12 percent year-on-year this fiscal to Rs 1.6 lakh crore. As per a report from Statista, online sale of milk has grown to 2.1 percent of organised milk sale in India from 0.5 percent in 2017.

The company shall use this fund for

Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

Cropin AI Labs is to bring predictive intelligence to every acre of the world’s cultivable land

Cropin, the global agritech pioneer that has built the world’s first industry cloud for agriculture, has secured Rs 113 crore in funding from new investors Google and JSR Corporation, as well as existing investors ABC Impact and Chiratae Ventures. The funds will aid in expanding Cropin Cloud, company’s recently launched intelligent agriculture cloud platform, to cater to the growing demand for digitisation and predictive intelligence in the global agriculture sector.

Cropin Cloud, launched in September 2022, has quickly become a leading platform in the digital transformation of agriculture. With the support of this funding round, Cropin will be able to further invest in its go-to-market efforts and expand the platform’s capabilities, including developing next-generation predictive intelligence solutions through Cropin AI Labs. The goal of Cropin AI Labs is to bring predictive intelligence to every acre of the world’s cultivable land. In addition, Cropin plans to expand its business presence in new regions and industries, focusing on creating solutions that promote sustainable agriculture practices and address global food security challenges on a large scale.

Commenting on the investment, Krishna Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cropin said, “Since its founding in 2010, Cropin has been dedicated to improving the intelligence of food production and maximizing value for all stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem. By making farms and harvests traceable, predictable, and sustainable, Cropin aims to transform how food is grown. The involvement of new strategic investors like Google and JSR Corporation, and the support of our existing investors, demonstrates confidence in our mission and impact. We are excited to partner with global technology innovators like Google, which further validates our capabilities and solidifies our position as a leader in the digitalization of global agriculture″.

Commenting on the development, Sudhir Sethi, Founder and Chairman Chiratae Ventures India Advisors, said, “Cropin has always embodied these values, and they are poised to be the largest Agritech company globally with its cloud-based, SaaS business model. This investment underlines our strong belief in their growth and the impact they deliver to co-create a truly sustainable global agri-food ecosystem. ″

Cropin AI Labs is to bring predictive

Acquaculture, Company News, Finance, India

Aquaconnect will utilise the fresh funds to widen its service offerings in both the pre-harvest and post-harvest aquaculture value chain

Aquaconnect, a full-stack aquaculture platform announces that it has raised $15 million (Rs 120 crore) in a Series A funding round, led by Lok Capital, with participation from Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, Suneight Investment along with existing investors including Omnivore, Rebright Partners, Flourish Ventures, HATCH and other debt investors participated in the round. 

Aquaconnect will utilise the fresh funds to strengthen its portfolio of scalable solutions that use AI and Satellite remote sensing and widen its service offerings in both the pre-harvest and post-harvest aquaculture value chain (to input retailers, seafood buyers and other stakeholders). 

Aquaconnect aims to grow stronger in the pre-harvest chain by tripling its AquaPartners network to amplify the impact across India. Currently, the company has a network of 500+ AquaPartners (rural entrepreneurs who provide last-mile assistance), serving over 90,000+ fish and shrimp farmers. 

Commenting on the Series A fund round, Rajamanohar und,Somasundaram, Founder & CEO Aquaconnect,said, “We’ve added about 500 AquaPartners in the last 12 months and this phygital network has helped us scale phenomenally across 6 major aquaculture production states. In the next 12 months, we are set to triple our AquaPartners’ network across India and optimise our service offerings.”

In the post-harvest chain, the company aims to scale its seafood market linkage across domestic markets in India. Further, Aquaconnect plans to accelerate seafood exports to the top import markets like the US, China and Japan and capture a significant share in the blue protein segment, globally. 

“We have been operating our domestic market linkages & overseas exports under stealth. As our pilots have shown great success, our team is geared up to scale the success we have achieved and enhance our B2B offerings in the next 12-18 months”, added Rajmanohar Somasundaram.

“Aquaculture is a great means for smallholder farmers to enjoy significant upward economic mobility. While Aquaculture might seem like a niche Agtech space, it is the sunrise sector in India showing double-digit YoY growth with a $15 billion market opportunity. However, the industry is hampered by inefficiencies in the value chain and poses a huge scope for tech disruption. Yet its true potential is untapped. Aquaconnect, with its deep-tech intervention, has the potential to disrupt the Indian aquaculture value chain and emerge as a key player in the growing blue food segment. We are excited to be a part of Aquaconnect’s growth, while it chases its aspiring goals and scales its operations in the domestic and global markets” said Hari Krishnan, Partner, Lok Capital. 

“Next 12-18 months will be challenging and exciting at the same time, the fresh funds will help us to accelerate our efforts and strengthen tech capabilities and bring efficiency and transparency in the aquaculture value chain,” said Rajmanohar Somasundaram. In July last year, Aquaconnect had raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round from Rebright, Flourish ventures and AgFunder. 

Aquaconnect will utilise the fresh funds to

Agrotech, Finance, India, Start ups

To scale up agri trade under ‘Collect and Pay’ Model

New Delhi based agritech startup BharathKisan has announced that company has raised Rs100 crore from Grow Money Capital Pvt Ltd. The investment is a structured deal involving debt flow under collect and pay trade model, which is an exclusive proprietary product of BharathKisaan platform. Under BharathKisaan collect and pay model small, marginal farmers and FPO have access to all the buyer class of agri trade ecosystem like agriprocessors, general trade merchants, modern trade partners, direct to consumer brands and HoReca partners. BharathKisaan acts as price discovery platform among agri buyers and agri sellers with collect and pay model trade engagement. With Collect and Pay model; trade happens with certainty, this has given wings for all agri buyers, agri sellers especially farmers and FPO’s to trade at PAN India level, Praveen R Naidu, Founder of the startup said.

“At Grow Money Capital Private Limited we believe that easy and convenient credit for the common man is a cornerstone of today’s economy. Working with BharathKisaan we shall provide high quality service to a wide range of borrowers in a fair, affordable and most importantly safe manner for all involved. This capital shall stand as witness to transparent convenient and decision-based trade engagement among all the players in agri ecosystem associated with BharathKisaan platform,” said Manoj Bansal, Managing Director of Grow Money Capital Pvt Ltd.

BharatKisaan enables agri buyers and agri sellers with price discovery services, zero risk trade, zero cost warehouse rental solutions, zero cost warehouse finance solutions, forward contracts with direct-to-consumer labels.

“BharathKisaan also offers BNPL solutions to urban consumers, who can purchase directly from farmgate, with closed loop distribution network; BharathKisaan has enabled each farmer to distribute his/her product to urban consumers without the need of intermediatry,” said Vivek Narasimharaju, Chief Revenue Officer of BharathKisaan.

“We are excited about this debt capital, as it allows the trade for small, marginal farmers and FPO to go out and fetch the trade leads beyond their territory. With indecisive trade across multiple markets farmers refrain from entering new and broader markets, but with us they can be certain as trade is enabled under-price discovery along with collect and pay model where every buyer on the platform is validated with proof of funds,” said Patibandla Anand, Chief Finance Officer of BharathKisaan.

To scale up agri trade under 'Collect

Agrotech, Company News, Dairy, India, Start ups

To deploy fresh capital for geography expansion, strengthening tech stack and to grow the top line to 300 Cr

With a focus on the farmers pain of low milk yield and less profits, Mooofarm an Agtech company has launched‘Dairy as a Service (DaaS)’ full-stack platform where farmers can buy best breed cattle, access tele-health and balanced nutrition services to increase milk yield and get loans to buy dairy inputs. 

The Mooofarm app, downloaded by 1.4+ million farmers, is a dairy farm management application designed for ease of use by dairy farmers in their vernacular language making buying of inputs (Cattle Feed and Cattle) more reliable, access to veterinary services more convenient at the fingertips. It also gives farmers access to relevant dairy farming techniques where they can calculate costs and revenue, access real time solutions, view learning options to critical problems, and allow farm data to be available in one place. 

The distribution of these services to the end farmer is ensured by Mooosathi, a village level entrepreneur to provide last mile aggregation and servicing of demand. The company will utilise the fresh investment to further scale its operations in Rajasthan, Punjab & Haryana and also unlock its geographical footprint to Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. Further Mooofarm targets to grow its MoooSathi base to 3000 and increase its revenue to Rs 300 crore by FY24.

Param Singh, Founder & CEO, Mooofarm, said, “We aim to utilise this Series A funding to further expand our operations nationally and strengthen our capacity to cater to the growing needs of our farmer communities. Our ability to combine a dairy farmer centric approach coupled with technology-driven processes and solid infrastructure, Mooofarm offers an integrated, efficient and scalable dairy management solution that connects all stakeholders along the value chain, making our platform indispensable to improve efficiency, yield and profits. “

To deploy fresh capital for geography expansion,

Company News, Finance, India, Start ups, Supply Chain

Assert AI to utilise the funds to expand into new markets and develop exclusive products for the agriculture industry.

 Arya.ag, India’s largest integrated grain commerce platform, has announced a strategic investment in computer vision-focused SaaS startup Assert AI. The development is part of Assert AI’s latest fund-raise amounting to $2 million and involved participation from Prashant Purker, Ex- MD & CEO of ICICI Venture, in his personal capacity.

Assert AI aims to utilize the funds to expand its presence overseas in the USA market and develop exclusive products for the agriculture industry. Computer Vision is rapidly assuming prime business consideration with the increasing demand for insights-driven digital images and videos.  This strategic investment aims to strengthen Arya.ag’s blockchain offerings and AI & deep tech vision for unprecedented visibility and assurance for its storage, financing, and commerce offerings.

Assert AI has already established itself as a formidable name in computer vision with offerings that include face recognition, object detection, weapon detection in high-risk areas, docks utilization, packet counting in warehouses, and safety gear detection, among others. Under this context, Assert AI aims to have a unique proposition in translating computer vision analytics into actionable business intelligence for businesses of all sizes.

On the development, Job Philip, Co-Founder, Assert AI commented, “Digitization and related proliferation of video, as well as other forms of the visual medium, is on an ever-increasing exponential curve. The need of the hour is to transform observations from these mediums into actionable business insights and ensure that this is executed in real-time. The latest round of funding furthers our resolve to continue pioneering innovation in the visual analytics landscape and expand its reach to large untapped segments, including agriculture.”

Prasanna Rao, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Arya.ag said, “At Arya.ag, we endeavour to digitize an otherwise conventional agri value chain. Tech-led computer vision ensures complete assurance for farmers, lenders, and buyers as they transact on our platform. Through our strategic investment in Assert AI, we aim to consolidate our AI & Blockchain offerings. This partnership will work towards conceptualising and innovating computer vision solutions specifically for the agricultural ecosystem.”

For Arya.ag, investment in Assert AI follows the startup’s recent move to acquire data science company, Prakshep, which consolidated the company’s deep tech capability to provide traceability, transparency, and quality assurance for seamless commodity commerce. Arya.ag is also in the advanced stages of introducing a first-of-its-kind public agri blockchain ledger in the country.

Assert AI to utilise the funds to

Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

The company aims to utilise the funds for their SNIPR Biologicals registrations and advancing the discovery platform

Tech-focused VC fund, Inflexor Ventures, is leading the Pre-Series A round of Rs 9 Crore in Agbiotech startup, BioPrime Agrisolutions (BioPrime). The current round of funding also saw participation from its existing investor, Omnivore. Inflexor has invested in 10 companies so far since November 2020, from its Fund II, companies including Atomberg, GramCover and Kale Logistics.

The company aims to utilise the funds for their SNIPR Biologicals registrations, advancing the discovery platform, building a strong IP portfolio, increasing production capabilities, and expansion.

“Bioprime works to transform the way we grow crops making food more nutritious, and residue-free while restoring soil health using cutting-edge technologies and approaches, always keeping sustainability at our core. At Bioprime we are focusing on discovering fundamental aspects of plant communication, developing novel biologicals based on trait-modifying microbes and physiology-modulating molecules.”, said Renuka, CEO of BioPrime Agrisolutions.

“We believe that the stellar founding team of BioPrime is well equipped to solve the complex food security problem brought to the forefront by climate change. The IP-led, high-throughput biomolecule discovery platform will facilitate faster market access. Such a technology platform fits well with Inflexor’s investing thesis of backing impactful, pure science companies from the Indian deep tech ecosystem.”, said Pratip Mazumdar, Partner at Inflexor Ventures.

“BioPrime is our first investment under the OmniX Bio initiative, which backs early-stage agrifood life science startups. We started OmniX Bio with the knowledge that innovations in agrifood life sciences can be the most effective weapon to combat climate change. BioPrime is an excellent example of an invention designed to improve human and planetary health alongside farmer incomes and we are delighted to back them” said Jinesh Shah, Partner at Omnivore Partners.

The company aims to utilise the funds

Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

The company plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, R&D and production scale up.

Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International Limited has announced its third investment this year into a differentiated drone startup, Dhaksha Unmanned Systems Private Limited. The company plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, R&D and production scale up.  

Coromandel, India’s largest private phosphatic fertilizer company has been a pioneer in deploying new age agritech solutions for the benefit of Indian farmers. The company has earlier partnered with Dhaksha drones to undertake several pilot programs of drone-based nutrient and crop protection applications. The company intends to soon launch a first of its kind “Drone as a Service” model in India. 

Dhaksha, one of the forerunners in the drone space in India, provides a complete range of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) technology solutions for different applications covering agriculture, defence, surveillance and delivery, among others. Based out of Chennai, the company has over the years developed expertise in drone R&D, testing, manufacturing, and customer support. In addition to having developed capability to manufacture battery-operated drones, Dhaksha is the only company in India to manufacture petrol engine-based drones. 

The “Agrigator” drone developed by Dhaksha targeting the agriculture industry, helps farmers with the application of fertilizers and crop protection products. Agrigator comes with a 12L spray tank and can cover up to 30-35 acres per day with 8-hour usage. In addition, the company has also developed targeted drones with specific use-case solutions across surveillance, goods delivery and mining.  

Commenting on the investment, Ramanathan Narayanan, Director and CEO of Dhaksha said, “This funding will help us create several milestones in the drone industry, deliver world-class drones, offer exceptional support to customers across India and make the company a frontrunner in realizing the government’s vision of making India a ‘Global Hub’ for Drones.”  

Commenting on their investment, Sameer Goel, Director, Dare Ventures Ltd., and Managing Director, Coromandel International Limited said “Coromandel is delighted to support Dhaksha in its aim to create a transformational impact on the drone manufacturing industry in India. With its strong research and manufacturing capabilities, we expect Dhaksha to be a leader in the Indian drone manufacturing space in the near future.”

The company plans to use this funding

Company News, Finance, India

 Company plans to expand its processing capacity for fruits and vegetables-based products, set up a biomass plant to generate electricity from process waste.

First Farmer-led Company in India, Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Care Limited has raised Rs 310 crore (almost EUR 40 million) growth capital from a group of impact-focused investor, Incofin, Korys, FMO and Proparco. Sahyadri Farms is well-placed to help farmers run their businesses in a more profitable and sustainable way. Alpen Capital acted as exclusive strategic advisor to Sahyadri Farms for this transaction.

The capital received from Korys, FMO, Proparco and Incofin is intended to further grow the farmer’s company. Sahyadri Farms plans to expand its processing capacity for fruits and vegetables-based products, set up a biomass plant to generate electricity from process waste and enhance its infrastructure, like packhouses.

Sahyadri Farms is a good example of rural entrepreneurship providing end to end solutions to small and marginal farmers.  In 2010 a group of 10 farmers took the initiative to collectively produce and export fresh grapes to Europe. That initiative has grown into the leading fruits and vegetable export and processing company that Sahyadri Farms is today, servicing over 18,000 farmers, covering more than 31,000 acres and 9 crops. The company walks with its farmers from their choice of crops to the farming practices they employ, from the inputs they use to how they harvest and sell their agricultural products.

“The idea of Sahyadri Farms is to unite farmers and make them think like professional entrepreneurs. We are building a sustainable, scalable, and profitable organization for all our stakeholders by making farming profitable and viable activity for each small and marginal farmer”, said Vilas Shinde, founding farmer and Managing Director of Sahyadri Farms.

Rahul Rai, Partner at Incofin India commented that, “Incofin feels privileged to lead this investor consortium and its partnership with Sahyadri Farms to support its spread as a global role model of a partnership-based approach to farming that results in sustainable financial impact, climate change adaptation and inclusive growth in rural communities while creating a technology-driven, globally competitive business.”

Michael Jongeneel, CEO of FMO said, “We expect this first international equity investment in a farmer-led organization in India to help Sahyadri Farms reach even more farmers and set a blueprint for further growth in the industry.’’

Françoise Lombard, CEO of Proparco said, ” This investment in a leading Indian agricultural company committed to a responsible approach will generate many positive social and environmental impacts.  Sahyadri Farms will be able to implement concrete measures to adapt to climate change, but also to mitigate it by increasing its share of renewable energy production to more than 50 per cent, and finally, to implement its zero-waste policy”.

“We are very excited to be a shareholder of Sahyadri Farms as it has a sustainable Business model with an emphasis both on consciousness towards the farmers’ community and on the environment. Their journey revolves around an inspiring story of a farmer turned entrepreneur who established a state-of-the-art infrastructure with a vision to transform traditional Indian farming”, said Hari Subramanian, Partner Korys India.

 Company plans to expand its processing capacity

Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

 The funds will be utilised to provide financial and technological assistance to elevate traditional agri businesses

Agri-fintech startup Ayekart announced that the company has secured $5.5 million in equity and debt fund. The funding was co-led by corporate lending financial service firm Caspian Debt and individual focused micro financial platform Siply.

The raised funds will be utilized to provide financial and technological assistance to elevate traditional agri businesses and accelerate their growth, the company said in release.

Founded in 2020, Ayekart helps agri business through a set of services including finance, tech, and supply chain management. It also enables credit through non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs) and other lenders for pre-shipment finance, distributor & dealer finance. It also allows manufacturers to find new markets.

Ayekart claims to have helped over 10,000 businesses and facilitated 130 crore valued transactions in FY22 with the Ayekart platform. The company claims a gross transaction value (GTV) of Rs 139.5 crore in FY22 with operations across 13 cities. Going forward, it aims to enable 10 million traditional businesses to embrace technology & hand hold them financially along with expanding its reach to 15 countries in the next 5 years.

 The funds will be utilised to provide

Agrotech, Finance, India, Start ups

Loopworm plans to use the Seed funding for talent acquisition, R&D (including building world-class laboratories), and to launch their first factory for scaling up production.

India’s leading insect biotech startup, Loopworm, announced today that it has raised a USD 3.4 million Seed round co-led by Omnivore and WaterBridge Ventures, with participation from Titan Capital and leading angel investors including Nadir Godrej (Godrej Agrovet), Sanjiv Rangrass (ex-ITC), and Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials).  Loopworm is optimizing insect farming for smallholders while producing value-added nutrients and ingredients for B2B customers.  Loopworm is Omnivore’s second investment under its OmniX Bio initiative, which backs early-stage agrifood life science startups.

Based in Bangalore, Loopworm was founded in 2019 by IIT Roorkee graduates Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri. The two young entrepreneurs are simultaneously solving India’s food waste crisis, increasing the incomes of smallholder farmers, and showcasing the power of Indian biotechnology to address environmental challenges. Using multi-species insect biotechnology, Loopworm is upcycling food waste into protein-rich nutrients and value-added ingredients.  This circular economy start up will help transform multiple sectors including aquaculture, pet food, and nutraceuticals.

Emulating poultry integration in India, Loopworm is building decentralized insect rearing facilities in partnership with smallholder farmers.  Over the next 5 years, the startup aims to produce 300,000 MT of sustainable insect-based protein per annum, creating value from 7.5 million MT of food waste and agricultural byproducts.  Loopworm plans to use the Seed funding for talent acquisition, R&D (including building world-class laboratories), and to launch their first factory for scaling up production.

Ankit Alok Bagaria and Abhi Gawri, Co-Founders of Loopworm, said, “We are thrilled to have Omnivore, Waterbridge, Titan Capital, and several experienced angels, including Nadir Godrej, as investors in Loopworm. We plan to use the new funding to set up our first Loop Factory in North Bangalore, hire talent, and accelerate R&D.”

Mark Kahn, the Managing Partner of Omnivore, commented, “ Loopworm sees massive potential in transforming cultivated insects into value-added nutrients and ingredients, and Omnivore believes the company will quickly become one of India’s leading biotech startups.”

Loopworm plans to use the Seed funding

Company News, Finance

Company plans to accelerate the commercial deployment of its next-generation product portfolio into new North American markets.

Toranto based Vive Crop Protection announced the close of its USD $26 million Series C investment round. The round was led by Emmertech with participation from the Cibus funds, and existing investors Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Export Development Canada (EDC), and Urbana Corporation. Vive has also secured debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) to provide both working and growth capital in support of their continued expansion.

Vive will have a second close in the next quarter to accommodate top-tier investor groups still completing diligence – all strategically focused on next-generation agriculture technology. Vive will leverage its newest funding to accelerate the commercial deployment of its next-generation product portfolio into new North American markets while advancing its research and development pipeline.

“The investment by Emmertech, the Cibus funds, and existing investors, and the debt financing provided by Silicon Valley Bank underscores our success in delivering innovative solutions to farmers,” said Darren Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, Vive Crop Protection.

Kyle Scott, Managing Director of Conexus Venture Capital & Emmertech, says, “We are thrilled to be backing Vive’s outstanding team and the trust they’ve built among farmers with solutions that are efficient, sustainable, and profitable. We look forward to supporting Vive with their R&D infrastructure and entrance into global markets.”

Alastair Cooper, Head of Venture at the Cibus funds, said, “Our investment underlines our commitment to disruptive companies like Vive who place innovation at the core of their business model. As agriculture continues to embrace new technology, we believe Vive products will become increasingly important for maximizing on-farm efficiency and sustainability.”

Graeme Millen, Managing Director and Climate Tech & Sustainability lead in Canada for Silicon Valley Bank, says, “Vive’s unique technology exemplifies the power of next-generation solutions to create sustainable yet profitable outcomes for stakeholders. This approach aligns with SVB’s role as an active partner for high impact Agtech companies and we’re excited to support Vive’s important mission.”

Vive’s proprietary Allosperse® technology is a nanoscale, polymer-based delivery system that improves the targeting and performance of both synthetic and biological active ingredients, enhancing farmers ROI and sustainability profile.

Company plans to accelerate the commercial deployment

Company News, Finance, North America

The funding will enable company’s delivery of the first-ever externally applied RNA for crop protection

US based GreenLight Biosciences, a public benefit corporation striving to bring effective and safe solutions to make food clean and affordable for everyone and dedicated to developing health solutions for every person on our planet, announced a private placement of approximately $109 million.

The financing includes participation from new and existing institutional investors, including S2G Ventures, BNP Paribas Ecosystem Restoration Fund, Continental Grain Company, Cormorant Asset Management, the Cummings Foundation, Fall Line Capital, the FTX Foundation, Insud Pharma, Morningside Venture Investments, Rivas Capital, Sigmas Group, SymBiosis and certain directors and executive officers of GreenLight.

“GreenLight’s RNA platform has continued to prove its value as our research and development addresses a wide range of solutions to the world’s challenges,” said Andrey Zarur, CEO of GreenLight. “We are grateful for the support, conviction, and trust of our returning investors. We are also delighted to welcome new investors who have decided to join GreenLight in our mission to feed the world and keep it healthy.

“This funding enables our delivery of the first-ever externally applied RNA for crop protection. In coming months, we anticipate EPA approval and launch of Calantha™, our solution for control of the Colorado potato beetle. Later this year, we plan to make a regulatory submission of our solution targeting varroa mites, which are decimating honeybee colonies around the globe.

“In recent months, we have manufactured mRNA at scale with Samsung Biologics and launched partnerships to develop vaccines with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health and with The Serum Institute of India.” GreenLight will be working to develop vaccines for COVID and shingles in the coming months.

Matt Walker, a Managing Director at S2G Ventures and member of GreenLight’s Board of Directors, said, “This capital infusion from new and existing investors is not just a vote of confidence in GreenLight’s team and technology platform, but also in its commercial progress and growing pipeline of opportunities in human and plant health.”

The funding will enable company’s delivery of