July 31, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

InnerPlant, a Davis, California-based farmer-first seed-technology startup, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by an alliance of large North American farmers spearheaded by Coutts Agro, an ag operator and investor. Other participants in the round included Systemiq Capital, Deere & Company and Bison Ventures, the latter two of which are repeat backers of InnerPlant. According to Crunchbase, the latest round brings InnerPlant’s total fundraising tally to $52.3 million since the company was founded in 2018.

InnerPlant CEO and Co-Founder Shely Aronov stated, “We’re very proud that this round is being led by the people who best understand what’s needed on the farm and what innovation in agriculture actually looks like. We’ve always put farmers at the center of everything we do and this investment validates that farmer-centric culture and our technology.”

InnerPlant is behind genetically engineered living sensor plants, dubbed InnerSoy, InnerCorn and InnerCotton, with the ability to signal stress, including when they are lacking nutrients, suffering fungal pressure or pest infiltration. Through InnerPlant’s solution, these signals can be detected from as far away as space and according to the company can warn of impending stress as much as three weeks sooner than current industry technologies allow, giving farmers the upper hand against threats.

The proceeds from the latest round will support the rollout and scaling of its CropVoice solution alongside InnerPlant’s work to launch seed sales and continue R&D work on more stresses, as well as the expansion into other crops such as corn. CropVoice is the product InnerPlant will offer to retailers and farmers starting in 2025 that’s powered by its InnerSoy fungal sensor.

Matt Coutts, CIO of InnerPlant backer Coutts Agro who also has a seat on the agtech’s board, stated, “Our family and our partners have been farming for several generations and this is the first time in decades that we’ve seen a technology that has the opportunity to increase agricultural GDP and not merely redistributing the value. The ability of farmers to receive data about stress that’s tied directly to plant physiology fundamentally changes how farmers can manage crops, resulting in more durable profitability.”

InnerPlant has also partnered with GROWMARK for the piloting of InnerSoy, a soybean that signals fungal pressure and the company’s maiden commercial product, in Southern Illinois fields. The agtech startup has teamed up with industry leaders John Deere and Syngenta for the development of an integrated precision platform to combat fungus in soybeans, an industry first that works in conjunction with John Deere’s precision ag See & Spray technology. Through InnerPlant’s technology, a fluorescent light alerts farmers to signs of disease in their plants. At year-end 2023, InnerPlant hired Syngenta alum Gary Schaefer to expand the commercialization of its technology.

InnerPlant’s Aronov in 2021 told GAI News, “Currently, huge amounts of chemical pesticides are applied prophylactically, and studies show that as much as 30 percent of those chemicals aren’t needed. However, despite the blanket use of chemicals, farmers still see up to 20 percent of their harvest destroyed by pests and pathogens. That’s a 40 percent inefficiency level that sees farmers buy more chemical inputs than needed yet still lose a significant amount of yield.”

InnerPlant’s technology allows farmers to erase losses through the early detection of issues while supporting more responsive, plant-specific interventions that lower fertilizer and pesticide applications, strengthen soil health and produce healthier crops.

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