AgBiome, a US-based developer of agricultural products to improve crop productivity, has raised $14.5m in its series A round from a consortium including undisclosed corporate venturing units and the scion of a UK-based food retailer.
Venture capital firm Polaris Partners led the A round and was joined by peers Arch Venture Partners and Harris & Harris Group, David Sainsbury, scion of the eponymous UK-based food retailer’s Innotech Advisers investment vehicle, and “additional strategic investors”.
Mike Koziel, AgBiome co-founder and chief executive of separate company Xinehta, said: “This is the first time to our knowledge that several major agriculture companies have co-invested at an early stage in an ag[riculture] biotech company. Their involvement creates an excellent starting point for future collaborations and market access.”
Crop companies Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta and BASF all have large facilities near to AgBiome’s office in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
The other co-founders of AgBiome include: Jeff Dangl, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; Paul Schulze-Lefert, director of Germany-based Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding; Scott Uknes, a co-founder of Paradigm Genetics and Cropsolution and most recently an executive at Bayer CropScience after the acquisition of Athenix, where he was vice-president of business development; and Eric Ward, co-president of ag-biotech for Switzerland-based drugs maker Novartis in Research Triangle Park.
AgBiome is using a plant’s microbiome—the community of microorganisms associated with plants—to find and use the genes of microbes to boost productivity of crop plants.
Separately, US-based Advanced Animal Diagnostics, a test for cows with mastitis backed by Novartis, closed a $6m tranche of its $11.3m series B round announced in 2011 – a $4m tranche was drawn last year after earlier milestones were reached.