Edison Agrosciences develops natural rubber from sunflower crops using a seed-breeding approach rather than genetic modification. The company has demonstrated that rubber accumulation in sunflowers is heritable and is running diversity and exploratory trials to identify high-rubber genetic lines. Sunflower leaves naturally contain about 1–2% rubber by weight and are already grown on roughly 1 million acres in the U.S., which Edison views as an advantage for scale-up. The new funding will support scaling operations to produce quantities for industry partners and physical and mechanical testing, and to further build out its breeding program. Edison plans to target specialty, higher-margin applications first before pursuing commodity rubber markets. The company describes itself as extremely lean and has previously operated for four years on roughly $100,000 in investor equity; prior funding came from the U.S. Department of Defense and the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jul 2024