February 16, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Congruent Ventures, an early-stage climate tech fund, has led $6.85 million in Seed funding for Robigo, a biomanufacturing company developing a microbial platform technology that leverages bioengineering and data science to precisely protect crops from diseases while being safe for pollinators, humans, and beneficial microorganisms. 

The round also saw participation from deep tech investors Good Growth Capital and First Star Ventures, among others. 

Named for a female Roman deity that protected fields of grain, Robigo applies deep expertise in biological engineering and data science to build a scalable platform technology that precisely targets agricultural diseases – beginning with those diseases devastating high-value, specialty crops – for which there are few options for effective treatment. 

The growing occurrence of plant disease outbreaks contribute to estimated global crop losses of between 20 – 40 percent, and we also lack effective treatments to mitigate the spread of newly emerging diseases. In response, Robigo seeks to provide an answer to the agricultural industry’s critical need for faster and greener solutions. 

“Today, the most widely used pesticides are toxic to the soil, broader environment, and human consumers in large part because they kill indiscriminately,” said Dr. Andee Wallace, CEO, Robigo.

“We’ve developed a way to give naturally-occurring microbes a boost that enables them to protect crops from disease. The next step is showing growers that it works reliably in the field, season after season.”

Building upon laboratory plant data showing over a 90 percent reduction of diseases in multiple crops, Robigo stated that it will use the funding from this round to demonstrate product efficacy in outdoor field environments. 

Beyond taking its technology to outdoor field trials, the company said it also plans to expand its platform capabilities to address a broader range of crops and diseases. 

“We’ve put together a world class team and we’re committed to growing our impact across the industry by delivering new solutions for the most hard-to-treat diseases,” said Wallace. 

For Congruent Ventures, it was the potential for wider positive impacts of Robigo’s technology that drove its investment. Joshua Posamentier, managing director, Congruent Ventures, explained, “Agriculture has an outsized impact on the planet – from contributing 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions to causing a significant loss in biodiversity.”

“Robigo’s platform has far reaching potential to fundamentally change how growers treat their crops, by eliminating the chemical products we’ve become accustomed to with safer biological solutions.”

Further, the global agricultural biologicals market, which had a value of $10.25 billion in 2021, is projected to see a CAGR of 14.07 percent to reach a value of $29.31 billion by 2029, according to Fortune Business Insight. 

The combined ecological and social benefits, together with the potential for growth and returns, have drawn attention and large sums of capital investment to ag biologicals.

In July 2021, Temasek and DCVC led a massive $430 million Series D for Pivot Bio – a company using its understanding of the crop microbiome to create cleaner nitrogen solutions that can decrease and permanently prevent synthetic nitrogen emissions.

And, one year later, in August 2022, Greenlight Biosciences closed on $109 million through a private placement that included some of the leading investors in the sector: S2G Ventures, BNP Paribas Ecosystem Restoration Fund, Continental Grain Company, Cormorant Asset Management, the Cummings Foundation, Fall Line Capital, the FTX Foundation, Insud Pharma, Morningside Venture Investments, Rivas Capital, Sigmas Group, and SymBiosis.

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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