US-based agricultural technology developer AgBiome raised $65m on Tuesday in a series C round that included Monsanto Growth Ventures, the corporate venturing division of agrochemical producer Monsanto.
Financial services and investment group Fidelity Management and Research also participated in the round, as did University of Texas Investment Management Company (Utimco), the investment vehicle for University of Texas System.
The round was filled out by Polaris Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Innotech Advisers, Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund.
Spun out from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013, AgBiome has created a platform known as Genesis that screens microbes, gene sequences and strains to identify genetic traits that can make crops more resistant to pests.
The series C money will go toward the commercialisation of a fungicide called Howler and a second product, Connate, about which the company has not revealed additional details, as well as the development of additional products.
AgBiome secured $34.5m in a 2015 series B round featuring Monsanto Growth Ventures and agribusiness Syngenta’s investment arm, Syngenta Ventures, as well as Utimco, Arch, Pontifax, Polaris, Innotech, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Harris & Harris Group.
Polaris had already led the company’s $14.5m series A round, which included Monsanto, Syngenta, Arch, Harris & Harris and Innotech, in 2013.