US-based crop nutrition technology developer Pivot Bio completed a $430m series D round yesterday that included industrial conglomerate Tekfen and agribusinesses Bunge and Continental Grain.
Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and venture capital firm DCVC co-led the round with backing from Generation Investment Management, Rockefeller Capital Management, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), Prelude Ventures, Pavilion Capital and private investor Roger Underwood.
Tekfen and Bunge were represented in the round by their respective corporate venturing units, Tekfen Ventures and Bunge Ventures. It valued the company at nearly $2bn, according to Reuters.
Founded in 2010, Pivot Bio sells microbial products that take nitrogen from the air to create ammonia needed for crop growth. The product is intended to replace the synthetic nitrogen fertiliser typically used in farming, which the company claims is inefficient and hazardous to the environment.
Tekfen Ventures and Bunge Ventures also took part in Pivot Bio’s $100m series C round, in May 2020, which was co-led by BEV and Temasek and also backed by DCVC, Prelude Ventures, Spruce Capital Partners, Codon Capital, Pavilion Capital, Alan Cohen and Roger Underwood.
BEV had led a $70m series B round for the company in 2018 that also featured Temasek, after it had raised $16m in a series B round two years earlier led by DCVC, which invested together with Prelude Ventures and Spruce Capital Partners.
Pivot Bio had already received $750,000 in a 2014 seed round co-led by DCVC and Monsanto Growth Ventures, the strategic investment vehicle for agriculture business Monsato since been acquired by pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer.