Participated · Series D · Oct 2020

Benson Hill develops Cloud Biology® and the CropOS™ platform, a food-innovation engine that combines data science and machine learning with biology and genetics to speed product development. CropOS makes Cloud Biology actionable, enabling precision and faster development of crop traits and ingredients. The company’s portfolio includes soybean varieties with attributes such as improved digestibility, heart-healthy omega fatty acids, and higher protein. These traits target the plant-based food, healthy oils, animal feed and aquaculture markets. Benson Hill plans to use new funding to deploy its platform technology, expand partner development across the supply chain, and scale product commercialization efforts. The company is led by CEO Matt Crisp and is based in St. Louis. Benson Hill Biosystems operates a crop design platform that leverages machine learning and big data alongside genome editing and plant biology to speed and simplify sustainable crop product development. The company emphasizes using the natural genetic diversity of plants to improve crops. Its platform, CropOS™, is a central component of its product development efforts. Benson Hill plans to use the new financing to further advance CropOS™ and expand product development capacity. The company aims to deliver a portfolio of improved crops with and for companies across the food and agriculture value chain. Benson Hill is led by CEO and co-founder Matthew Crisp and is based in St. Louis. Benson Hill Biosystems develops CropOS, a computational "cloud biology" platform that applies big data analytics and machine learning to predict and accelerate crop genetic improvements. CropOS is described as a cognitive engine whose outputs can be deployed via breeding, genome editing, and transgenics. Benson Hill says CropOS successfully identified traits to improve photosynthesis and that trait product candidates have demonstrated significant yield increases in corn hybrids across diverse environmental conditions. The company announced a $25 million Series B to further advance CropOS and to develop a portfolio of product candidates intended to increase crop yield without requiring additional inputs. Benson Hill positions its technology to unlock the global genetic potential of plants to enhance the sustainability of food, feed, fiber and fuel production. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in St. Louis, Missouri. Benson Hill Biosystems develops PSKbase™, a computational and systems biology–based platform to help technology developers identify strategies to increase genetic gain in crop plants. The company focuses on discovering and validating traits that boost crop productivity, using an integrated, systems-based approach. Benson Hill has assembled a pipeline of trait candidates aimed at improving photosynthesis and overall yield. It intends to use recent funding to advance PSKbase™ and support additional field trials and product development activities. The company is led by president & CEO Matthew Crisp and was founded in 2012. Benson Hill Biosystems develops ag biotech tools that analyze and use photosynthesis to boost crop productivity. The company recently signed a deal with Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC), Brazil’s largest sugarcane technology center, to address unseen yield potential in sugarcane. Benson Hill plans to use recent seed funding to expand its team and support R&D focused on photosynthesis-driven yield improvements. The seed round has grown to over $1.5 million after an additional $50,000 investment from iSelect. Co-founder Matt Crisp said the company is looking to raise $7 million more in a Series A expected to close later this year. iSelect added the investment to its platform in July and, under new SEC rules, is pursuing further ag investments and aims to deploy $500,000–$2 million by the end of 2015.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2020

CoverCress develops a winter oilseed crop derived from field pennycress, branded CoverCress, intended to be planted after corn harvest and harvested before soybean planting. The crop is designed to enable three full-season crops in two seasons while delivering cover-crop environmental benefits such as soil carbon sequestration and reduced erosion. CoverCress's seed produces a low-carbon-intensity oil for renewable diesel, biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel as well as a meal or whole-grain feed ingredient for livestock. Scientists have used plant breeding and advanced gene-editing tools to increase yield, accelerate maturity, and improve oil and meal quality. The company says the seed can provide a cash profit margin to farmers, and it markets the product as a regenerative, revenue-generating cover crop. CoverCress raised $8 million in partner funding to complete final crop development and scale up toward a planned commercial planting in fall 2022. CoverCress develops a new winter oilseed crop (CoverCress) derived from pennycress using plant breeding and genome‑editing tools. The crop is planted at corn harvest in fall and harvested immediately before soybean planting, offering farmers an additional cash crop while serving as a cover crop that builds soil health and holds nutrients over winter. Its grain contains oil and protein similar to canola and has a very low carbon intensity, attracting interest from bio/renewable diesel producers and firms seeking non‑GM protein meal. The company has grown to a team of over 20 and maintains partnerships with Illinois State University, the University of Minnesota, Western Illinois University, and participates in the USDA iprefer grant program. CoverCress plans a commercial launch in fall 2021 and aims to scale to millions of acres across the southern Midwest; the recent funding is intended to build the value chain to support that launch. Mike DeCamp joined as COO to focus on building the value chain for commercialization. CoverCress develops a gene-edited pennycress, branded Covercress, intended as a winter oilseed cash crop that also provides soil cover between corn harvest and soybean planting. The company uses conventional breeding, mutant-population screening with partner universities, and CRISPR to improve yield, maturity, oil content and composition. Its seed oil and press-cake meal are positioned as similar to canola, with higher-value oil and high protein for dairy and swine feed. CoverCress conducts research across three facilities in St. Louis’ 39 North district and has partnerships with the University of Minnesota and Illinois State. Management plans a first commercial crush and commercial launch in 2021 and is expanding its R&D team and field-farmer support headcount. The company says the business is more time- than capital-intensive and has secured runway of at least one year with this raise to complete its fifth field trial. Arvegenix is an ag biotech company engineering genetically improved field pennycress as an oil crop. The company completed a $2.4 million venture financing. The round included a long list of investors, with several agtech-focused backers among them. Named investors include agtech accelerator The Yield Lab, Cultivian Capital, and Monsanto Growth Ventures. Other participants were Michael Roth, the St. Louis County Port Authority, Prelude Ventures, Prolog Ventures, Missouri Technology Corporation, BioGenerator, and St. Louis Arch Angels. The raise was reported in an Agtech Funding Sheet covering Latin American startups, ag marketplaces, bio-inputs, sensors and more. Arvegenix is focused on improving pennycress, a wild mustard-family plant, as an oil-producing crop that can be grown in winter between corn and soybean seasons. The company aims to harvest oil-rich seeds and repurpose the leftover seed meal as livestock feed. Pennycress offers soil protection during winter, requires relatively low pesticide, fertilizer, and water inputs, and has attracted USDA support for biofuel research. Arvegenix plans to expand R&D to increase yields, conduct regulatory feeding studies on press-cake, and develop growing and crushing operations. The company launched in 2013 and is based in St. Louis. It has previously received investments from Helix Fund and Missouri Technology Corporation.

Led · Equity · Apr 2020

CleanSlate UV develops UV-based sanitizing machines designed to disinfect smartphones, tablets, barcode scanners, wireless payment terminals and other portable items. Its machines disinfect 3–4 items at a time in about 20 seconds, use a chemical-free process safe for sensitive touchscreens, and are reported to kill at least 99.979% of SARS-CoV-2. The company targets deployment in hospitals, businesses and other high-traffic environments to place clean devices into clean hands. CleanSlate UV is using government support to move from development toward testing and production of its machines. CEO and cofounder Taylor Mann framed the product as a safe, effective tool to help contain COVID-19 in healthcare and commercial settings. Financially, the company received a $300,000 grant from the Government of Canada’s NRC-IRAP to support R&D and production testing. CleanSlate UV provides chemical-free sanitizing units that use ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and viruses on cell phones and other devices in roughly 20 seconds, disinfecting multiple phones per cycle with no user training required. The product is targeted at doctors, nurses and visitors in healthcare settings and has been deployed in hospitals and food processing facilities in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. The company is commercializing a software suite that uses automatic RFID scanning to create compliance reports and let managers see when facility-owned devices were last sanitized. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven increased demand across its core healthcare market and broadened interest from food processing, biotechnology, hospitality, and corporate environments. Founded in June 2014 out of Queen’s University, CleanSlate UV previously received a US$500,000 award and an additional US$300,000 from 43North in 2015. The company recently closed an C$8.4M (US$6M) Series A to support geographic and industry expansion and to commercialize its software, and it expects an additional US$1M from angel investors that would bring the round to C$9.8M (US$7M).

Led · Equity · Mar 2020

Kinnos's core product, Highlight, is a patented, hospital-grade color additive platform that temporarily colors disinfectant wipes and solutions to provide staff with an instantaneous visual cue to improve disinfection quality. Highlight is Star Registered by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council and recognized by the World Health Organization; a peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Infection Prevention found it improved disinfection quality by as much as 70%. Highlight is already in use by hospitals, first responders, and transit agencies around the world and the company positions the product as a way to raise the standard of care for cleanliness and infection prevention. Kinnos was founded in 2015 during the Ebola outbreak and is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. The company announced a $15 million financing to meet growing healthcare industry demand and to scale commercial deployment. It also named healthcare veteran Steve Fanning as CEO to lead rapid growth and commercialization. Kinnos is a New York–based startup that makes colorized disinfectant additives to ensure surfaces are covered. Its core products are Highlight powder, a patented additive dissolved into bulk bleach that colors solutions blue and fades after a few minutes, and Highlight wipes, which impregnate wipes at point of use. The company primarily targets hospitals and healthcare settings and has sold to humanitarian organizations deployed to Liberia, Guinea, Haiti, DR Congo and Uganda, with recent shipments to China amid the coronavirus outbreak. Kinnos is a five-person company founded six years ago and conducts third‑party testing to ensure its additive does not reduce disinfectant potency. The additive lasts about five hours in a bucket of bleach and fades on surfaces in about three minutes. After establishing a foothold in hospitals, the company is considering a consumer offering. Kinnos developed Highlight, a patent-pending additive for disinfectants designed to improve visibility, coverage, and end-user compliance. The product was created in response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa and has been field-tested in Liberia, Guinea, and Haiti. Highlight is used by the Fire Department of New York and Kinnos was a grantee of the USAID Fighting Ebola Grand Challenge. The company has received recognition including the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize, Collegiate Inventors Competition, and Columbia Venture Competition, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare. Kinnos is led by CEO Jason Kang. Financially, Kinnos recently closed a $1M seed round led by Georgica Advisors with participation from New York Angels, VentureWell, and other strategic angel investors.

Led · Equity · May 2019

bioClarity is a digitally native, direct-to-consumer skincare brand based in San Diego and part of Adigica Health, Inc. Founded in 2016 and led by president and CEO Rick Sliter, the company sells skincare routines, face masques, a serum, body wash and a beauty supplement. Its products incorporate the company's patented Floralux®, a form of chlorophyll described as an antioxidant and clinically proven to help reduce redness and pore size. Products are vegan, cruelty-free and formulated without parabens, sulfates and phthalates. The company raised $13M in the first closing of a new investment round, led by Prolog Ventures which invested $6M. bioClarity intends to use the funds to accelerate growth through larger marketing initiatives and additional product innovation.