Agrobiomics raises €4 million to make plants climate resilient with biological solutions

24-Jul-2024 - Last updated on 24-Jul-2024 at 12:19 GMT

The Agrobiomics team has 'delivered on its promise to provide transformative solutions to farmers coping with the constant and growing challenges of drought and salinity'

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Agrobiomics, a Danish agtech company developing sustainable biological solutions for agriculture, has raised €4 million from NOON Ventures to bring an abiotic stress protectant, called Fortify, to the market – making plants climate resilient.

Founded in 2022 with a mission of making agriculture resilient to climate change, Agrobiomics has developed a biological solution, Fortify, which can increase plant robustness against climate-induced stress such as drought and salinity.

With financial support from the BioInnovation Institute of €1.4 million, Agrobiomics’ solution has already shown a high impact on sustainable agriculture for securing global food supply, and the company will now continue to invest in further trials across different crops, i.e., soy, corn, and tomatoes, and across various geographies, i.e., Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa.

Designed to tackle growing food security threat

Today, global food security is threatened due to several climate and geopolitical factors, as well as the availability and affordability of some crop inputs for farmers. Climate change is accelerating the loss of global arable land available, through drought and salinity stress, and significantly reducing farming yields. According to the USDA, drought and salinity conditions have an impact estimated around €90 billion per year in yield losses. Around 75% of the global population will be affected by drought by 2050, which necessitates the need for new agricultural solutions that can enable farmers to grow more for less.

Agrobiomics claims its technology is derived from nature itself, tapping into millions of years of evolution. The unfair advantage is the unprecedented low dose needed per hectare, which enables farmers to grow food sustainably, reliably, and profitably.

Across various crops within both broad acre and fruit and vegetables, Agrobiomics’ first product, Fortify, has shown an ability to increase yield substantially, while increasing plant robustness under drought and salinity conditions. For soy and corn, Agrobiomics have already progressed to field trials and seen impressive yield data. Additionally, the technology is easy to integrate in existing agricultural practices, offering a true ‘plug-n-play’ solutions for farmers, creating a market opportunity for Fortify projected at more than $2 billion.

‍Agrobiomics CEO Ejner Bech Jensen said: "We appreciate the trust NOON Ventures and BII has shown in Agrobiomics and our technology. Their experience in building companies and partnerships will be valuable and we share the vision of delivering big on the sustainable impact. NOON Ventures' investment will enable us to complete product development, upscale production, and launch Fortify across major markets.

In the past two years, our excellent team has built Agrobiomics from scratch, validated the IP with strong field results, and attracted significant partnerships. We have been greatly helped by BII, that is an incubator backed by the Novo foundation. This means we are on track to help farmers tackle challenges like drought and salinity, contributing to a significant CO2 reduction of more than 100 million tons annually, and potentially even enabling soil reclamation. We aim to lead in BioAg, providing biological solutions for both abiotic and biotic stress, and aspire to replace pesticides with our natural, stable Streptomyces metabolites."

A biological solution that plugs directly into existing supply chain

‍Theis Malmborg, partner at NOON Ventures, said: ”The agricultural industry faces significant challenges to meet the requirements of a growing population, and the impact of climate-induced stress on our natural systems is adding to the pressing issues of the industry. Agrobiomics has the potential to become a key enabler in building a climate resilient agricultural system with a biological solution that plugs directly into existing supply chain and agronomic practices.

”We are proud to be backing the team and look forward to work together with them on advancing the technology and bring its products to the market.”

Quotes from Christian Brix Tillegreen, director of planetary health at BioInnovation Institute, added: "Since receiving financial backing from BII in 2022, Agrobiomics has delivered on its promise to provide transformative solutions to farmers coping with the constant and growing challenges of drought and salinity."

“The company's biostimulant efficiently protects a wide variety of crops against high levels of salinity and has shown to significantly promote yields in field trials (20% increase) at a very low dosage (1-10 mg/hectare). A recent investment of €4 million from NOON Ventures will further accelerate development and help bring this sustainable technology to billion-dollar markets such as soybean and corn.”