Participated · Series A · Oct 2024

Agtonomy is a South San Francisco–based software and services company that brings autonomous operation to agriculture, turf, and broader land-maintenance markets. Its physical AI platform is integrated directly into commercial equipment through partnerships with leading original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs), enabling machines to navigate and work autonomously in orchards, vineyards, fields, and managed green spaces. The technology is designed to reduce labor costs, boost safety, and promote more sustainable farming and land-care practices. Agtonomy generates revenue by licensing its software and providing related automation services to OEM partners and end-customers. To date, the company has secured $18 million in Series B funding and counts investors such as DBL Partners, Nuveen, Autotech, Allison Transmission, Rethink Food, and Black Forest Ventures on its cap table. The new capital will be used to enhance the platform’s capabilities, broaden equipment integrations, and scale commercial deployments into adjacent off-road industries.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2024

Solasta Bio develops peptide-based, nature-inspired bioinsecticides designed to selectively target insect pests while protecting beneficial pollinators such as bees. Its technology platform can be mobilized for any pest across crop and non-crop applications, including stored grain. The company’s agents demonstrated efficacy on par with or better than commercial standards across more than 20 field trials in Europe, the UK and the US during the 2023 trials season. Co-founded by CEO Shireen Davies and CSO Prof. Julian Dow, Solasta is based in Glasgow, Scotland. The company recently closed a $14M Series A, bringing total capital raised to $19M, and intends to use the funds to accelerate development of its peptide-based bioinsecticides. Forbion’s involvement will also add a board seat as part of the round. SOLASTA Bio develops next‑generation green insecticides based on nature‑inspired peptides that target pests selectively. The company's core products are sustainable peptide insect control solutions intended to replace or augment conventional chemical insecticides. SOLASTA was announced as the winner of the Radicle Natural Plant Protection (NPP) Challenge by UPL, which the company says will help accelerate its solutions toward the global market. As part of the prize, SOLASTA will gain industry support and access to UPL Corp and Radicle Growth's networks and expertise to help commercial development. The company was selected from a pool of 237 start‑up applicants, highlighting external validation of its technology. No revenue, user, or founding‑year metrics were disclosed in the announcement. Solasta Bio has developed a technology platform for creating neuropeptide-based insect control products that are nature-inspired rather than selected from a synthetic chemistry library. Its products target insect pests while preserving beneficial pollinators such as bees, and the platform can be mobilised for any pest of interest. The company plans to use the funds to scale up UK and US operations, expand its technical and commercial teams (creating 25 jobs), accelerate development of its technology platform and target new markets. Solasta is led by CEO Shireen Davies, PhD, with CSO Professor Julian Dow and former BASF executive Dr Paul Bernasconi among the team; other executives include Chair Dr Rob Wylie, CFO David Armour and CCO Dr Daphne Preuss. The company currently employs a team of 25 R&D, commercial staff and consultants. The fundraising round brings the company's total funding to £5.5M. Solasta Bio develops biopesticides using a technology platform that creates neuropeptide-based insect control products inspired by nature rather than synthetic-chemistry libraries. Its products are designed to target insect pests while preserving beneficial pollinators such as bees. The company was established in May 2020 following four years of research funded by UKRI BBSRC and the EC, with commercialisation support from Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spinout Programme. Management includes co-founders Professor Shireen Davies (CEO), Professor Julian Dow (CSO), Paul Bernasconi (CTO) and Professor Robert Liskamp, supported by a Glasgow-based R&D team. Financially, Solasta secured £1.3m in seed funding and had earlier pre-seed backing from UKI2S and Scottish Enterprise. The company plans to move trials out of the laboratory into real-world settings and aims to bring its first biopesticides to market in 2027, roughly half the development time of traditional synthetic products.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2024

Kuehnle AgroSystems develops a dark fermentation platform to produce high-value microalgal ingredients, with its lead product being natural astaxanthin for aquaculture, human nutrition and animal health. The company demonstrated, with manufacturing partner Biorea, the world’s first industrially relevant production of natural astaxanthin oleoresin via dark fermentation, establishing a technical foundation for scaled production. KAS has a strategic collaboration with Corbion to advance process optimization, strain development, manufacturing scale-up and global commercialization. The platform is non-GMO and designed to use substantially less land, water and resources than conventional cultivation-based methods. Current plans focus on manufacturing scale-up, regulatory approvals, development and validation of salmon feed products, and commercial deployment to address growing demand in salmon aquaculture and nutraceuticals. The company aims to offer a more sustainable, secure and cost-competitive source of natural astaxanthin while expanding its scientific and engineering teams to support commercialization.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2024

ZymoChem offers a carbon-efficient bio-manufacturing platform built on proprietary Carbon Conserving (C2) microbes. Its microbes convert renewable feedstocks into a variety of high-performance, bio-based, biodegradable polymers via a proprietary fermentation process that yields near-zero CO2 emissions. The company says its process can improve yield by up to 50% versus alternative processes, creating a cost advantage. ZymoChem promotes bio-based manufacturing through partnerships across the value chain and provides drop-in solutions for existing infrastructure. Led by CEO Harshal Chokhawala, the company says its technology has already catalyzed multiple partnerships with world-leading companies. ZymoChem intends to use new funding to expand operations and its business reach. ZymoChem develops Carbon Conserving (C2) microbes and processes that convert renewable feedstocks into high-value, biodegradable bio-based materials intended to replace petroleum-based ingredients in consumer goods. The company emphasizes cost, performance, scale, and sustainability while minimizing CO2 loss during production. ZymoChem was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Leandro, California, with a satellite division in Burlington, Vermont. Its technology targets near-term chemical commercialization via fermentation and downstream purification to produce low-cost, high-performing materials derived from sugars. In 2023 ZymoChem was selected for the Department of Defense's BioMADE program and has now received DOE support to advance bioprocessing research and scale-up. The company aims to contribute to industrial decarbonization, job creation, support for underserved economies, and growth of the U.S. bioeconomy. ZymoChem develops microbes and bioprocesses to produce eco-friendly chemicals from renewable feedstocks such as sugar. The company's work focuses on engineering microbial strains and bioprocess routes for sustainable chemical production. ZymoChem closed a $350,000 seed round according to the article. Early-stage investor Breakout Labs was the sole investor in that round. The article does not report any operating metrics, location, founding year, or prior financings. No use-of-proceeds or detailed strategic plans were disclosed in the coverage.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2023

AgroSpheres has built a fully vertically integrated platform that manufactures, encapsulates and delivers biological pesticides—encasing RNA actives in a protective shell to improve stability, shelf life and field performance. The encapsulation shields active ingredients from heat, UV and other environmental factors, enabling a consistent gene-silencing response that targets pests while sparing beneficial insects such as bees. The company says its AgriCell approach is microplastic-free and biodegrades after use, aiming to reduce overall pesticide use and biodiversity harm associated with conventional crop protection. AgroSpheres is advancing regulatory approvals with the U.S. EPA and is co-developing a new product pipeline with major industry partners. The startup is building a pilot facility in Charlottesville to support scale-up and plans to have its first product approved and in market by the end of 2024. It has also launched a plant health program with the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research to develop compounds that increase yield and drought tolerance. AgroSpheres develops a delivery platform that makes it cost-effective to deliver oils, small molecules, and semiochemicals in the field at reduced doses. Its patented AgriCell and AgriShell technologies enable the development of biological pesticides with multi-year shelf-life and high efficacy in the field. The company offers friendly crop health products and plans to broaden applications of its AgriCell platform. Management is led by CEO Payam Pourtaheri and CTO Ameer Shakeel. AgroSpheres raised $22M in a Series B and intends to use the funds to accelerate product commercialization and expand manufacturing capacity. The financing is intended to support commercial scaling and seeding of broader platform applications.