UNC Chapel Hill’s agricultural technology developer AgBiome has increased its overall funding to $230m following the series D round.

AgBiome, a US-based agricultural technology spinout from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, collected $116m in series D funding yesterday. The round was co-led by venture capital firm Novalis LifeSciences and investment firm Blue Horizon while undisclosed new and existing investors also contributed to the financing. Founded in 2013, AgBiome has developed the Genesis platform, which is able to identify the gene sequences and strains of microbial life that could potentially protect agricultural crops from pests and disease. The spinout has also created a fungicide that can protect against more than 300 combinations of crop disease. It plans to use the series D capital to expand its product portfolio and grow its scientific and commercial activities. Scott Uknes, co-founder and co-CEO of AgBiome, said: “With this capital, AgBiome is well-positioned to execute on its strategic business model focused on developing proprietary products, fostering partner programmes, joint ventures and new company formations, all of which represent significant growth opportunities for AgBiome.” University of Texas System’s investment unit, University of Texas Investment Management Company (Utimco) backed a $65m series C round in 2018, when Monsanto Growth Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of agrochemical group Monsanto, also invested. Monsanto has since been acquired by chemical group Bayer and rebranded to Bayer Crop Science. The series C round was also backed by investment and financial services group Fidelity, Polaris Partners, Arch Venture Partners, Innotech Advisers, Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund. AgBiome raised $34.5m in a 2015 series B round featuring Utimco as well as Monsanto Growth Ventures and Syngenta Ventures, the investment arm of agricultural product provider Syngenta, in addition to Arch Venture Partners, Pontifax, Polaris, Innotech, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Harris & Harris Group. Polaris had led a $14.5m series A round in 2013, investing together with Monsanto, Syngenta, Arch Venture Partners, Harris & Harris and Innotech. Its investors also include pharmaceutical and chemical group Bayer’s Leaps by Bayer subsidiary and biotechnology developer Novozymes, according to its website. – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

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