Germany-based pharmaceutical and chemicals firm Bayer and DuPont Pioneer, the plant genetics subsidiary of US-based conglomerate DuPont, joined forces on Wednesday to establish an agtech-focused accelerator fund named Radicle.
Founding members also include venture capital firm Finistere Ventures and equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd as well as private equity firm Cloud Break Advisors. The partners have achieved a first close at $6m for the fund, with a final target size of $15m.
Radicle will incubate startups developing agricultural technology that can tackle global issues in the farming sector. Areas such as genomics, plant sciences, seed technology, biologicals for crop protection and regulation, and big data analytics as well as novel farm systems will be considered.
Apart from access to capital, Radicle will also provide mentorship, corporate, academic and public research relationships.
The incubator’s nternational partners include Australia’s national research agency CSIRO and multi-university technology transfer office Uniseed, and Avac and Verdex Capital in Canada, as well as Innovation Endeavors, Yarden Group and OurCrowd in Israel.
Graduating startups will be able to seek follow-on funding from the founding investors and their networks.
Neal Gutterson, vice-president of research and development at DuPont Pioneer, said: “DuPont Pioneer continually scouts the innovation frontier for novel ways to improve agricultural productivity and seeks to collaborate with those on the cutting edge of science, even at the earliest stages of technology development.
“Radicle’s virtual accelerator operating model and investing approach is expected to help Pioneer achieve these objectives.”