July 20, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Temasek and DCVC have led a massive $430 million Series D for Pivot Bio, a company revolutionizing nitrogen usage in agricultural production. 

This round brings total funding for the company to more than $600 million, and is a return for Temasek, which co-led a $100 million Series C for the company along with Breakthrough Energy Ventures in May of last year, and for DCVC, who participated in the Series C, and led the company’s Series A and Series B rounds. 

Joining Temasek and DCVC were other return investors including Generation Investment Management, G2 Venture Partners, and Rockefeller Capital Management. Continental Grain Company, Prelude Ventures, Pavilion Capital, Bunge Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, and Roger Underwood, the co-founder of leading biological tech company Becker Underwood, also participated.

“We are thrilled to be investing in Pivot Bio, given the deep trust they have built among farmers by providing solutions which are both more sustainable and profitable for their customers,” said Lila Preston, head of growth equity, Generation Investment Management. “We look forward to supporting the company as it accelerates its broader climate impacts on a global basis.”

Founded in California by Karsten Temme and Alvin Tamsir, Pivot Bio is targeting the biggest source of greenhouse gases on Earth, the nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide released through the use of chemical fertilizers, by using its unparalleled understanding of the crop microbiome to create cleaner nitrogen solutions that can decrease and permanently prevent synthetic nitrogen emissions – mitigating approximately $200 billion of environmental impact.

Just like the evidence of rising atmospheric CO2 levels first reported in the 1950s, there is now increasing evidence that synthetic nitrogen is correlated to the degradation of farm soils. And as food demand increases, so does synthetic nitrogen use, degrading more soils and intensifying the threat to our global food system.

However, crops utilize only about half of the synthetic nitrogen applied to fields. A portion is emitted as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and other nitrogen gasses. This has resulted in nitrogen becoming the top source of crop-related greenhouse gasses, and nitrate runoff in our waterways is negatively impacting water quality and significantly contributing to more than 500 global oceanic dead zones.

In response, Pivot Bio stated that farmers “urgently need a clean nitrogen source that supports the environmental needs of their farmland while delivering productivity.”

In 2019 Pivot bio introduced the industry’s first commercially available microbial nitrogen, and has since replaced synthetic nitrogen on more than 1 million acres this year alone – reflecting unprecedented adoption, and more than 300 percent year-on-year growth, tripling its revenue in the process.

Pivot Bio PROVEN® 40 – the company’s fourth commercial product in three years was created using proprietary computational and microbiome technologies, multi-scale automated testing, and a deep well of unrivaled scientific expertise, enables corn growers to replace up to 40 pounds per acre of synthetic nitrogen – nearly double the performance of the company’s inaugural product.

“Pivot Bio exemplifies the power of DeepTech solutions to create equitable and profitable outcomes for all stakeholders in immense industries like agriculture,” said Matt Ocko, co-managing partner,  DCVC.

“Farmers are able to grow more crops to feed more people, more cost-effectively, while being even better stewards of their land and water,” continued Ocko. “Societies benefit from both more abundant food and more climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture. Pivot Bio has delivered the kind of win-win-win breakthrough DCVC is honored to back, and on which we are focused as a firm.”

Pivot Bio is the only company in the world to have shipped a synthetic nitrogen fertilizer replacement at scale – a status that the company expects to keep for the foreseeable future. Its nutrient measurement tools, grower engagement programs, and direct-to-farm supply chain which have been developed in close consultation with farmers and adapt to the changes on each specific farm, delivering long-term, predictable revenue for both the farmer and Pivot Bio for the long-term.

“Pivot Bio is driven to serve farmers by simplifying the challenges of managing nitrogen and ensuring resilient farm productivity,” said Karsten Temme, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO, Pivot Bio.

“We have built a platform for accelerating nitrogen innovation in the market, and our products are delivering recurring positive outcomes for the growers we serve,” noted Temme. “We are establishing relationships that will span decades, and aim to provide the sole source of nitrogen needed to power the economic and environmental sustainability of global agriculture for generations to come.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor 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 Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.