Agrisoma, deep-link startup Branch and micro-scholarship platform Raise.Me were among this past week’s notable investing deals.
Agrisoma – its core technology is a proprietary method to introduce, express and manage new genes in plants. It has developed oil from the Carinata seed which it says is the only scalable agricultural crop for next-generation biofuels and bio-based jet fuels. Global biofuel production is expected to reach 61 billion gallons by 2023, or 6% of global transportation fuel production. $15.4 million Series B via BDC VC to total $17.72 million raised from six investors. Based in North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Agersens – is developing a collar and phone app enabling farmers to fence, move or monitor their livestock using their smartphone. $2 million seed via Bell Potter to total $2.36 million raised from two investors. Based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Branch – is building a platform that powers deep links that point back to mobile apps for shares, invites, and referrals, promising to improve retention, discovery and the mobile customer experience. Such a platform could also help degrade referrals to fake news sites. $60 million in Series C funding led by Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures. Based in Palo Alto, California.
Cirius Therapeutics – is developing an insulin sensitizer for the treatment of patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a type of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and liver fibrosis. NAFLD affects 20-30% of North Americans. $40 million in Series A funding via Frazier Healthcare Partners and five other investors. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Ecoation – data collection platform for early detection of pests, diseases and deficiencies that affect crop value. $1 million seed from Vancouver Angel Platform and Creative Destruction Lab. Based in North Vancouver British Columbia.
Full Harvest – an online platform selling food seconds to businesses, has closed a $2 million seed round led by Wireframe Ventures and others, raising the total funds it has raised to $2.35 million from seven investors. The startup aims to repurpose 20 billion pounds of produce that are wasted in farms each each year. Based in San Francisco, California.
Inspira – offers modular cold storage and food processing units, which run on off-grid renewable energy, to remote crop production farms in East Africa and South America, where lack of cold storage in remote locations places limits on product yield, shelf-life and revenue potential. $1.76 million in funding from five investors. Based in the UK.
Proveca – is developing medicines to treat chronic medical illnesses in children, has raised £4 million in new venture capital and debt financing via Catapult Ventures, GM&C Life Sciences Fund and Kreos Capital, raising total funds it has received to £7.27 million. Proveca has also received a total of £600k in Innovate UK grants. Based in London, UK.
Raise Labs – this week’s spotlight for their work in making higher education more affordable (see chart) is building a platform to match colleges and universities with eligible financial aid recipients in high school, via “micro-scholarships” to reward good grades or extracurricular activities. $12 million in Series A bringing total raised to $16.5 million from nine investors. Based in San Francisco, California.
Roslin Technologies – University of Edinburgh’s commercial spin-off for animal health agritech. Among its innovations planned for commercialization: a low-cost manufacturing system to produce therapeutic proteins in chicken eggs, novel vaccines to enhance animal welfare and germplasms to preserve poultry genes for future generations. $12.5 million seed from three investors. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Synack – penetration tester and “good-hacker-as-a-service” with its “unique Crowd Security Intelligence” platform gets $21.25 million via Microsoft Ventures and Singtel. Based in Redwood City, California.
Waycool – aims to fix the disorganized, perishable food and produce supply chain in India. $2.7 million seed via Aspada Investments will help extend its reach to other major cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad, and build a technology platform to track and measure supply chain inefficiencies. Based in Chennai, India.
In other news, Lyft has raised at least $500 million in new VC funding putting it at around a $7.5 billion valuation. The car-sharing platform and Uber-competitor was also in the news when one of its executives got nominated by President Trump to a post in the Transportation Department, and when thousands of its drivers failed background checks in Massachusetts.
Sources: Crunchbase, TechCrunch, SEC, ImpactAlpha, MobiHealth News, AgFunder
