Frpm Agfunder, November 22:
Editor’s Note: Brett Morris is a principal at Kansas-based venture development organization TechAccel. Here
he lays out the nuances within 245 ag biotech startups and how
TechAccel thinks about investments in this fundamental agrifood tech
category.
Ag Biotech (agriculture biotechnology)
applies to all technologies used on the farm involving biological or
chemical processes. It is a broad category involving many types of
technology and science, including breeding, genetics, microbiome
research, and animal health and nutrition. Ag biotech is a central
component of the agrifood tech investing landscape with startups raising
$262 million in the first half of this year alone — 23% of farm technology fundraising figures — as noted by AgFunder.
To better evaluate and visualize the
ag biotech market landscape, we at TechAccel started to create market
maps as an internal project. Over time, we realized it could be a
valuable resource to share amongst peers and industry outsiders, given
the venture community’s tendency to focus more on digital agtech
companies.
There are 245 companies illustrated
in the maps. According to our research, they have raised approximately
$3.4 billion in total funding since they were founded: $500 million in
animal biotech and $2.9 billion in plant biotech.
Below is a summary of our ag biotech
category definitions and some commentary around a few areas we find the
most compelling for investment.
Gene Editing
Gene Editing is an ag
biotech tool used to precisely insert, edit, or delete the DNA of an
organism. In agriculture and animal health, breeders could utilize one
of several approaches including CRISPR-Cas9, TALENs, and Zinc Fingers to
create disease-resistant genes, improve health and nutrition, or
enhance performance at a fraction of the traditional time and cost
[compared with genetic modification or traditional breeding]. Today, we
believe there are excellent investment opportunities to utilize
gene-editing in higher value-niche crops that are closer to the consumer
such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts. These crops have higher margins
compared to row crops and less competition from major agriculture
conglomerates, yet still represent large addressable markets.
Breeding & Trait Technologies
Breeding is the science
of changing plant traits to produce desired characteristics using
methods such as conventional breeding, tissue culture and propagation,
molecular breeding, and marker-assisted breeding. Biotech Traits transfer
useful characteristics into a plant by inserting genes from another
organism. There are a few startups developing innovative breeding and/or
genetic technologies that avoid the regulatory burden of a genetically
modified organism. Three examples are Epicrop Technologies, a startup using epigenetics to improve yield, stress tolerance, and vigor in several crops, Kaiima Bio Agritech, a company using mutagenesis and other technologies to improve crop performance, and Phytelligence, a startup using proprietary tissue culturing technology and protocols to produce cheaper, faster, and superior rootstocks....
...MUCH MORE
