May 31, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Pluton Biosciences (Pluton) has a mission to bring agriculture to a carbon-negative outcome by leveraging the power of microbes to identify and deploy cost-effective and innovative solutions that address the sustainability challenges faced in food production.

Illumina Ventures and RA Capital are onboard with this mission, having co-led a $16.5 million Series A for the company with participation from Fall Line Capital, The Grantham Foundation, First In Ventures, and new investors Wollemi, iSelect, and Radicle Growth, making this their first investment from their second fund. 

Through a revolutionary approach, Pluton leverages Micromining™ and cutting-edge genomic technologies to discover novel microbes and develop world-changing natural products that address climate change and sustainability by tackling carbon sequestration and crop protection by improving the way food is grown. 

Using its Micromining Innovation Engine, the company stated its team can tap into the present diversity in bacteria, fungi, and viruses to identify beneficial phenotypes from novel microbes within a matter of months, rather than years. This process then generates multiple commercialization channels via: biological products, fermentable and non-fermentable small molecular chemistries, and new traits with the potential for scale. 

Charles Lin, PhD, with Illumina Ventures, who through this partnership has joined Pluton’s Board of Directors, commented on the exciting potential for genomics in agriculture, stating,  “In the past two decades, we have witnessed how genomics revolutionized the landscape of human diagnostics and therapeutics.”

“We expect genomics to also enable breakthroughs in agriculture. Pluton’s Micromining™ approach, combining genomics with rigorous data science, can unlock the potential of soil microbes for more sustainable agriculture and beyond.”

The capital raised through this round will be used to support field trials and commercial partnerships to accelerate the development of Pluton’s flagship product, the Microbial Cover Crop™, a product that sequesters carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere and deposits in into the soil, explained Elizabeth Gallegos, CEO of the company.

“It will also enable us to expand our team, advance a microbial-derived pesticide to combat the fall armyworm, and harness the full potential of our Micromining™ platform to swiftly identify tailored solutions for agriculture,” said Gallegos. 

Concurrent with this investment, industry veterans Jerry Steiner and Neal Gutterson, PhD., joined Pluton’s Board of Directors.

“Pluton’s vision of using the vast potential of microbial genetic diversity to make agriculture carbon-negative is inspiring,” said Steiner, Executive Board Chair, Pluton.

“Our Micromining™ platform enables the vision, with field-level proof for the Microbial Cover Crop™ product building over the next few years.  This product will complement many other innovations growers can use to improve their farms’ profitability while helping the planet.”

~ 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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