July 24, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

Agrobiomics, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based agtech startup, has raised €4 million (U$4.3 million) from NOON Ventures, a local deep-tech venture fund, in its latest funding round. The agtech company, which according to Crunchbase has raised a total of €6 million (U$6.5 million) since inception, plans to direct the proceeds toward introducing its flagship abiotic stress protectant dubbed Fortify – which makes plants more climate resilient – to farmers around the world. For its part, NOON backs transformative technologies with the potential to impact environmental or climate challenges.

Founded in 2022, Agrobiomics has accepted a mission to make agriculture resilient to climate change. Biological solution Fortify is designed to increase plant robustness against climate-induced stress like drought and salinity. According Agrobiomics, Fortify has the potential to capture more than 100 million tons of CO2 annually while preserving food worth up to €90 billion (U$97.6 billion).

With early backing from the BioInnovation Institute amounting to €1.4 million (U$1.5 million), Agrobiomics has been able to demonstrate what it described as the “high impact” of its solution on sustainable agriculture with a view toward securing global food supply. Now with its latest capital injection from NOON Ventures, Agrobiomics has enough cash runway to further invest in trials across multiple crops, such as soy, corn, and tomatoes, across jurisdictions including Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.

Agrobiomics CEO Ejner Bech Jensen shared with GAI, “We expect that Fortify can reach market in Q1 2027 in the regions with the fastest regulatory approval process. We were able to convince NOON about the potential in Agrobiomics because of our unique product, initial strong data, huge market need and their confidence in the team. We have demonstrated our ability to reach results fast and base our development on strong science and data.”

Mathilde Nordgaard, Agrobiomics co-founder and R&D director, also weighed in, telling GAI, “We were able to convince NOON to invest by showing promising results of our technology, which compared to other solutions are used at very low doses – less than a teaspoon per hectare, as well as the huge market need for such solutions. Besides this, NOON has great trust in the skills and experience we have within our strong team. With this investment, we will start upscaling our production to reach commercially relevant titers of the active ingredient, and perform larger field trials globally, including the U.S., Brazil, Africa and South Vietnam (as well as continuing to expand in Europe).”

With the capital it has raised from the VC community, Agrobiomics, whose leadership team hails from various sectors within agriculture and science, is committed to making the ag industry more resilient to climate change, starting with the major toll that salinity has had on crop production, to ensure greater food security for the world.

A Booming Population and Food Security

With the global population expected to soar by 2 billion in the coming decades to hit 9.7 billion by 2050, food security has become a top priority. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that to meet the rising demand, the ag industry will need to bolster food production 60 percent by then.

Meanwhile, growers are facing fierce headwinds owing to climate and geopolitical issues, exacerbated by the availability and affordability of certain crop inputs. Climate change is blamed for consuming arable land available on the planet, owing to the stress of drought and salinity and slashing farming harvests.

The FAO shows that over 830 million hectares of soil have been affected by salinization, cutting into crop production and costing the industry tens of billions of dollars each year. Those conditions aren’t expected to improve anytime soon, catalyzing Agrobiomics into action.

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