US-based crop protection product developer Enko Chem has emerged from stealth with $66m in funding, including $45m from a series B round featuring food and agriculture-focused financial services firm Rabobank.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation led the series B round, which included Rabobank-backed venture capital firm Anterra Capital, Finistere Ventures, Novalis LifeSciences, Germin8 Ventures and TO Ventures Food.
Founded in 2017, Enko is leveraging discovery and predictive analytics tools traditionally used in the pharmaceutical industry to develop safe and cost-efficient products to protect farmland from pests or diseases.
The company, which was incubated by Anterra Capital, will use the capital to strengthen its core technology as it looks to build out a range of products.
Enko’s chief executive, Jacqueline Heard, said: “We are leveraging powerful drug discovery technologies to build a deep pipeline of solutions at unprecedented speed as we strive to lead this $60bn industry into a new era of sustainable agriculture.
!We are thrilled that our novel approach, which builds in safety measures from the start to keep us ahead of future needs, has attracted support from this top-tier group of investors.”
Marijn Dekkers, founder and chairman of Novalis, will take a board seat at Enko in conjunction with the round, as will Finistere Ventures co-founder and partner Spencer Maughan.
Enko has not disclosed details of its earlier financing but a securities filing indicates it raised $7.5m out of a targeted $15m in July 2018. The company identified Rabobank and Anterra Capital as existing investors in the latest round.
