US-based seed technology developer Inari completed its $89m series C round yesterday, pulling in capital from investors including packaged food producer Campbell Soup’s corporate venturing vehicle, Acre Venture Partners.
The round also featured Flagship Pioneering, the life sciences company builder that founded Inari, as well as state-owned holding company Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the Singaporean government-owned EDBI and unnamed additional participants.
Inari has created a system that combines genetic and computational technology to help seed producers devise new varieties. It will spend the series C cash on enhancing its tools and bringing its soybean and corn seeds to the US commercial market.
Ponsi Trivisvavet, chief executive of Inari, said: “We have the ability to rapidly enhance nature’s genetic diversity and provide ways to increase yields, save water and reduce agriculture’s impact on our land and climate.
“Our technologies address not only the needs of growers, but those of the environment as well.”
The round brought Inari’s overall funding up to $144m. The first $15m was provided by Flagship Pioneering, which joined Acre Venture Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments, the venture capital arm of life sciences real estate developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities, for a $40m series B round in August 2018.
