Finistere Ventures is an agricultural technology and life sciences venture capital investor. Founded in 2005, the company partners with other entrepreneurs and creative thinkers to build innovative companies that have the potential to transform modern agriculture, increase food security, improve nutrition, and enhance sustainability.  Their applied experience as operators, and pioneering role in Ag Tech, is actively utilized to benefit its portfolio companies and Partners.   Finistere has global access to the best new technologies from centers of Ag Tech excellence in the U.S., Australia, Israel, New Zealand, and Canada through its venture partner networks. Finistere’s locations in San Diego and Palo Alto, California keeps them connected to the centers of mainstream venture investment and the world’s leading innovation ecosystem.

Finistere Ventures

Kapyon Ventures is an incubation firm focused on the development of technology spinouts from global research institutes.

Kapyon Ventures

Two Oceans is a venture capital firm that is headquartered in the United States.

Two Oceans

The Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (MSMC) is a farmer run organization dedicated to improving.

Missouri Soybean

Middleland Capital is a private investment firm focused on global early-stage technology opportunities. Leveraging a unique breadth of geographic and industry experience, the firm seeks partnerships with exceptional management teams to commercialize innovative technologies, accelerate growth, and build long-term value around the world.

Middleland Capital

ZeaKal

At ZeaKal, we are building a value driven “NewType” of agriculture to harmonize the needs of farmers, consumers, and our planet. Our flagship plant trait technology, PhotoSeed™, helps crops capture more carbon and sunlight, leading to healthier, nutrient-rich food and feed grown on a smaller environmental footprint. We go beyond science to make affordable nutrition more sustainable, with marketable differentiation for growers. Discover how we are transforming carbon to nutrition: zeakal.com or @zeakal on Twitter.

<div>ZeaKal is a biotech company that innovates plant traits, powered by pioneering science and collaborations with agriculture companies, to increase crop yield, quality, and sustainability while using fewer inputs.</div>

Enhancing seed and crop traits via biotechnology

Crop Biotech

ZeaKal Announces First PhotoSeed Technology for Corn

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 ZeaKal is a biotech company that innovates plant traits, powered by pioneering science and collaborations with agriculture companies, to increase crop yield, quality, and sustainability while using fewer inputs.
 
 
 ZeaKal&rsquo;s plant trait technology PhotoSeed enhances a plant&rsquo;s photosynthetic capacity to capture more CO2 and sunlight. The additional carbon capture increases oil production without compromising the energy needed to maintain crop yields. 
 
 
 As of 2024, the company is developing PhotoSeed soybeans and corn, of which the soybeans are expected to have ~23% oil compared with ~20% in commodity beans, increased protein, and reduced land usage and carbon emissions. The Photoseed corn had increased corn oil composition by ~23% in its first-year field trials in March 2024, Zeakal expects its corn to be commercialized in 2027. 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships 
 
 
 ZeaKal partnered with Perdue AgriBusiness in May 2022 and Nutrien Ag Solutions in July 2023 to improve soybean genetics using its PhotoSeed technology for poultry feed and soybean growers.
 
 
 ZeaKal partnered with Corteva Agriscience in February 2019 for a strategic R&amp;D collaboration and to further develop ZeaKal&rsquo;s PhotoSeed technology. It also partnered with Gro Alliance in February 2021 to support supply chain harmonization for soybean seed production.
 
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 PLANTeDIT is a biotech company that develops agricultural solutions by using advanced genome editing tools, specifically CRISPR/Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), to create sustainable food products. One of PLANTeDIT's key projects is the development of non-transgenic high-oleic soybeans, which are created by mutating the FAD2 gene in soybeans, resulting in increased oleic oil content.&nbsp;
 
 
 High oleic oils are valued in the food industry for their stability and shelf life, making them a suitable replacement for hydrogenated oils that contain trans fats. PLANTeDIT's high oleic soybean oil has potential applications in various food products, including packaged baked goods, cereal coatings, crackers, dried fruits, and non-dairy creamers.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In October 2017, PLANTeDIT partnered with biotech company ToolGen, Inc., to receive access to ToolGen's CRISPR platform and licenses for other gene-editing tools for the company's R&amp;D in crop improvement areas such as resilience to harsh climates, increased nutrition, and higher yield.
 
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PLANTeDIT

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 Amfora is an agricultural biotech company that uses CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology to make plant-based alternatives for animal protein and increase the protein content of staple food crops. The company also uses DNA markers, phenotyping tools such as single-seed near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), and AI tools for advanced crop breeding methodologies to enhance crop genes affecting the protein, oil, and yield content in feed crops.
 
 
 Amfora is developing a family of feed and food crops, the latter of which includes soybeans wheat, and rice, and provides the suppliers of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives with their primary ingredients. The company is also involved in aquaculture feed with the development of a low-cost plant-based protein for farmed seafood.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s patented CRISPR technology leverages gene editing to control the balance between protein and carbohydrates, thereby increasing protein in all crops. The CRISPR technology also lowers the glycemic index and starch, optimizes the amino acid profile, and enhances micronutrients in its food crops.
 
 
 In May 2024, Amfora announced it received approval from the US Department of Agriculture&rsquo;s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for its soybean, with expected commercialization by 2027.
 
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 Amfora partnered with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in April 2017 and Corteva Agriscience in April 2019 to receive licenses from the two partners to develop oil and protein content in food crops.
 
 
 In March 2021, it partnered with Plastomics to use its trait delivery technology to introduce Amfora&rsquo;s gene-editing constructs into soybean germplasm. The company partnered with McClintock in July 2023 to combine its phenotyping tools with McClintock&rsquo;s AI and machine learning breeding solutions to accelerate efforts of increasing soybean productivity.
 
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Amfora

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 BioHeuris is an Argentine biotech company that combines synthetic biology with CRISPR gene editing to develop hybrid herbicide-resistant crops to reduce the use of herbicides increasing sustainability and reducing development costs and time to market.&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris has two technology platforms&mdash;Heurik and Swap. Heurik is a high-throughput platform that uses directed evolution and designs of herbicide targets to identify mutations that allow herbicide resistance. Heurik can select gene variants and compare their microorganisms' efficiency and anticipate their effect on crops. Swap is a non-genetically modified organism (non-GMO) platform that combines tissue culture with gene editing techniques to precisely introduce changes and confer herbicide resistance in crops.&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris&rsquo; variety of crop developments with partners include soybean, sorghum, rice, cotton, alfalfa, peanut, maize, and sunflower. The company is developing high-yielding resilient crop varieties for soybean, cotton, and alfalfa. For the rest of the crops, BioHeuris is focusing on developing herbicide and climate-resistant hybrid varieties.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 BioHeuris partnered with Benson Hill in May 2018 and Gensus in May 2021 to apply the company&rsquo;s gene editing technology in developing herbicide-tolerant crops for soybeans, sorghum, and wheat for the former and cotton for the latter. It also partnered with Grupo Don Mario (GDM) in June 2021 for the development of high-yielding soybean varieties using gene editing.&nbsp;
 
 
 In February 2022, BioHeuris partnered with AgIdea to develop a single platform, the Agile Breeding platform, providing genome editing, breeding services, and double haploid tools to seed companies. 
 
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BioHeuris

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 UK-based Tropic Biosciences (Tropic) develops genetic innovation for tropical crops to increase crop yield and sustainability. Tropic uses pioneering technologies, including CRISPR gene editing, to increase crop disease and climate resistance, reduce supply chain waste, and reduce dependence on pesticides.&nbsp;
 
 
 Tropic&rsquo;s in-house gene editing platform, Gene Editing-induced Gene Silencing (GEiGS), combines gene editing precision with gene silencing (RNAi) and innovates vast gene editing possibilities in crops to improve their natural traits.
 
 
 The company&rsquo;s tropical crops offered are varieties of bananas, rice, and coffee. The bananas are developed with gene editing to be resistant to the Panama and Black Sigatoka diseases, have an extended shelf life, and reduce food waste and CO2 emissions by over 25%. Using gene silencing, Tropic makes its coffee low in caffeine and increases solubility with gene editing. The company uses gene editing for rice to make them high-yielding and disease-resistant.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 To use its GEiGS platform for developing crop traits, crop varieties and improving livestock protein feed, Tropic Biosciences partnered with Baden Aniline and Soda Factory (BASF) in July 2020, Genus in October 2020, British Sugar in March 2023, and Corteva Agriscience in October 2023.
 
 
 Tropic Biosciences received a license of access for Pairwise&rsquo;s base editing technologies in February 2022 to accelerate breeding innovation in coffee and banana crops for the former.
 
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Tropic Biosciences

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 Meiogenix is a French agriculture biotech company that partakes in chromosome editing to develop new crops. The varieties of crops, using meiotic recombination, expand the biodiversity available to farmers, which is claimed to overcome climate change and food insecurity challenges. The company&rsquo;s SpiX technology targets homologous recombination in plant genomes, which allows the re-assembly of crop traits during the breeding process. The recombination process is claimed to reduce lengthy breeding cycles from 6&ndash;13 years to 3&ndash;7 years and allows the development of entirely new complex traits.
 
 
 In 2021, Meiogenix was developing three applications: the transfer of gene edits or transgenes into a large number of commercial germplasm; the isolation of useful crop traits from low agronomic performance of wild varieties; and the generation of complex crop traits, such as flavor, drought tolerance, nitrogen, or water use. As of 2021, the company&rsquo;s product focus was on corn, tomato, rice, and soybean, with further plans to develop crop varieties in other fruits and vegetables.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;
 
 
 The company partnered with the French Centre de coop&eacute;ration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le D&eacute;veloppement (CIRAD) in February 2011 to research the impact of Meiogenix&rsquo;s SpiX technology on rice genomes.
 
 
 It partnered with Bayer in April 2016, providing Meiogenix&rsquo;s SpiX license for use in crop development. In February 2020, Meiogenix partnered with Bayer again to collaboratively improve its recombination technology.
 
 
 Meiogenix also partnered with Lesaffre in June 2016 to use the former&rsquo;s recombination technology to develop improved industrial yeast strains for Lesaffre&rsquo;s yeast manufacturing. 
 
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Meiogenix

Companies that develop or use biological, physical and chemical agents and techniques to provide protection and improve the quality of a seed. This includes the sale of seed coating, or seed enhancement products as methods to treat seeds.

Companies that redesign large clusters of genes and gene parts rather than modifying or engineering a single gene for improving the traits of a plant.

Companies that utilize genetic engineering tools and technologies to use existing and naturally present gene variants in a plant and the natural process of breeding such as inbreeding, and linebreeding to develop better traits for plants.

Companies that use transgenesis processes like tissue culturing to develop transgenic plants or seeds by inserting new genes into them from other plants or in certain instances other organisms like bacteria or even animals.

Companies that offer techniques such as epigenetics, RNA interference (RNAi) to temporarily block a specific gene that would trigger unwanted effect such as a disease on a plant.

Companies that develop a platform to insert, edit, or delete the DNA of a plant itself using approaches such as CRISPR-Cas 9, TALENs, and Zinc Fingers. These approaches help develop plant genes or seeds with traits such as disease-resistant, enhanced-performance, or improve yield.

Offers customization of genes and traits as required by farmers

Biotech solutions to produce crops that are sustainable and offer better traits

Uses AI/machine learning to facilitate their platform/biotech processes like gene editing

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 ZeaKal, a San Diego-based startup, has developed a genetically modified corn variant with increased oil levels by leveraging its unique technology aiding in heightened carbon and sunlight absorption. The company aims to cater to the rising need for renewable energy sources by employing this variety of corn for the same purpose.
 The corn variety of ZeaKal, produced via genetic modification, offers an extended duration for photosynthesis, and as a result, boosts the oil content by nearly 23%, potentially increasing corn oil yield by approximately 80 pounds per acre. This technological breakthrough arrives at a time when there is a growing demand for feedstock, a critical ingredient for creating renewable diesel.
 
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ZeaKal

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