The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund is backed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Fund’s partners are 9 publicly funded research bodies, including STFC, BBSRC, NERC and Dstl. The Fund is independently managed by venture capital specialist Midven. They help build companies from great science developed in laboratories, science and technology campuses and synthetic biology. They hold investments in some of the UK’s most innovative companies, in areas as diverse as novel antibiotics, research into Alzheimer’s disease, “green” chemicals and airport security.

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund

Future Planet Capital is the global impact-led venture capital firm built to back growth companies from the world's top universities and research ecosystems. The group manages $380m for institutional investors and has invested in over 300 companies, with 60 successful exits. It's portfolio is built around breakthrough technologies solving global challenges in Climate, Health, Education, Sustainable Growth and Climate Change.

Future Planet Capital

Aliment Capital is a pioneering growth capital investor in food and agriculture technology. It makes global investments in growing businesses that boost agricultural productivity, nutrition, health, sustainability, and supply chain efficiency. The firm was founded in 2014 and is based in Santa Monica, California.

Aliment Capital

Five Seasons Ventures is a Paris-based venture capital firm entirely focused on innovative companies along the food and agriculture supply chain. Consumers are becoming more conscious about their nutritional choices and they are changing their dietary preferences to healthier food, extreme convenience, cleaner labels, and higher sustainability. The firm provides reliable capital, technology, and food experience, and a network of industry contacts to European food tech entrepreneurs who create new food categories, develop cleaner processes and ingredients and use technology to enable new and disruptive business models.

Five Seasons Ventures

Emerald Technology Ventures specializes in clean technology venture capital. Founded in 2000, Emerald focuses on the areas of energy, water, and materials. From offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Toronto, Canada, Emerald manages several venture capital funds and venture capital portfolio mandates.

Emerald Technology Ventures

Bits x Bites is a food tech VC that invests in early-stage startups tackling global food system challenges. It targets companies innovating across the food supply chain, from farming, production, distribution, and logistics, to consumer goods and food services.

Bits x Bites

Tekfen Ventures invests in early-stage companies that have uniquely impactful technologies and business models we believe will change the world. Our primary investment focus is in industrial and enterprise software and hardware technologies.   As the corporate venture arm of Tekfen Holdings, a multinational industrial conglomerate, they leverage their unique assets and resources to be a true partner and strategic ally to their portfolio companies.

Tekfen Ventures

Temasek Holdings is a lender provider. The company offers debt financing and focuses on transforming economies, increasing middle-income populations, developing comparative advantages, and emerging champions. Financial services, transportation, industrial, consumer, real estate, telecommunications, media, technology, and life sciences are among the industries served by the firm.

Temasek Holdings

Genoa Ventures invests in early-stage life sciences technology companies. They fund entrepreneurs and companies looking to change the way science gets done with new tools and technologies. Sector focus areas include research tools, molecular diagnostics, synthetic biology, and industrial biology. Genoa Ventures was founded in 2014 by Jenny Rooke and is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

Genoa Ventures

Sumitomo Corporation Europe Limited is a leading integrated trading and investment solutions provider. With their headquarters located in London they have 13 offices, based in 10 countries across Europe. They also have subsidiaries and affiliate companies located in the Middle East, Africa and in other areas of Europe. As a principal subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, one of the world leaders in integrated trading, they have access to a global network of more than 72,000 people across 67 countries.

Sumitomo Corporation Europe Limited

Skyviews Life Science is a privately held advisory company specializing in personalized health. Skyviews Life Science identifies investment opportunities in companies at the growing interface between biotechnology, advanced nutrition, and digital health. Skyviews Life Science focuses in private and public companies with better drugs, advanced technology platforms, preventive strategies, personalized solutions, and more natural foods that will improve people’s quality of life.

Skyviews Life Science

Port Erin Biopharma Investments Limited (LSE: PEBI), incorporated on 3 May 2011 under the law of the Isle of Man for the purposes of investing in the Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical sector.  The Company's strategy is to create value for Shareholders through investing in companies that have the potential to generate substantial revenues through the development of biopharmaceutical drugs.  The Company's Non-Executive Chairman is Jim Mellon, who has had a successful career in the fund management industry.  The Company intends to co-invest wherever possible alongside Mr Mellon in investments that he has identified.

Agronomics

Blue Horizon Corporation is an investment firm that invests in companies and businesses in the agriculture and food processing sector. The firm also partners with farmers, food producers, and distribution chains. It was founded in 2016 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Plant based, food tech,

Blue Horizon Corporation

Technology, we believe, is critical to closing the gap between our growing needs and diminishing resource supply. They foresee a society where not only is high quality of life widely available and abundant, but also where manufacturing is robust and environmentally sustainable.  To improve the health of our world, it is our obligation to stimulate disruptive breakthroughs in the methods we produce and consume.

Rage Capital

ADQ  is a holding company with a diverse portfolio of major enterprises covering key sectors of Abu Dhabi's economy, including utilities, tourism and hospitality, aviation, transportation, logistics, industry, real estate, media, healthcare, agribusiness, and financial services.

ADQ launched DisruptAD in 2021 as its venture platform to foster entrepreneurial innovations. It offers a variety of investment vehicles, including venture capital deployment, venture building, and new ventures development.

DisruptAD

Sucden Ventures

Bloom8 is a venture capital firm focuses on foodtech companies.

Bloom8

Tropic Biosciences

At Tropic Biosciences, They develop high-performing commercial varieties of tropical crops which promote grower wellbeing, consumer health, and improved sustainable environmental practices, using cutting edge non-GMO gene editing techniques.

<div>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;</div>

Enhancing seed and crop traits via biotechnology

Crop Biotech

BREAKING: Crop gene editor Tropic Biosciences banks $35m in fresh funding

Corteva Agriscience

Tropic and Corteva Agriscience have formed a strategic collaboration to leverage Tropic's Gene Editing induced Gene Silencing (GEiGS®) technology for developing non-transgenic disease resistance traits in corn and soybeans.

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.

Genus

To accelerate improvements in bovine and porcine genetic solutions by exploring the applications of Tropic’s Gene Editing-induced Gene Silencing (GEiGS) technology

Driving livestock productivity using next-generation biotechnology

Livestock Biotech

Companies that use a range of genetic techniques that can alter the DNA of animals more precisely than traditional breeding techniques. Techniques such as gender selection via sexed semen, genomic selection, or even gene editing methods like CRISPR are used to breed animals precisely with superior genetic traits.

<div>
 
 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.
 
</div>

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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.
 
</div>

PLANTeDIT

<div>
 
 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.
 
</div>

Amfora

<div>
 
 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. 
 
</div>

BioHeuris

<div>
 
 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. 
 
</div>

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.

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

Tropic Biosciences

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