Agrobiomics, a Danish AgriTech company that creates biologically sustainable agricultural solutions, has raised €4 million for climate resilience.
The funds are raised from NOON Ventures to launch Fortify, the most effective abiotic stress protectant that increases plant resilience to climate change. A system with the potential to save up to €90 billion in food costs and more than 100 million tons of CO2 yearly.
Agrobiomics was founded to enhance agricultural resilience to climate change and has created a biological solution called Fortify that can strengthen plants’ resistance to stressors brought on by the climate, such as salinity and drought. Agrobiomics’ solution has demonstrated a high impact on sustainable agriculture for securing the global food supply, and the company will now continue to invest in further trials across different crops, such as soy, corn, and tomatoes, and across various geographies, such as Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. The startup has received financial support of €1.4 million from the BioInnovation Institute for this initiative.
The availability and cost of some crop inputs for farmers, together with several climate and geopolitical issues, pose a danger to global food security today. Due to drought and salinity stress, climate change is speeding up the loss of arable land worldwide and drastically lowering agricultural yields. The USDA estimates that salt and drought conditions cause yield losses of about €90 billion annually. By 2050, drought will affect over 75% of the world’s population, making innovative agricultural solutions necessary to help farmers grow more for less money.
The technology of Agrobiomics draws from millions of years of natural evolution. The unfair advantage lies in the historically low dose per hectare, enabling farmers to produce food reliably, profitably, and sustainably.
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Agrobiomics’ initial product, Fortify, has demonstrated a significant boost in output across a range of crops, including fruit and vegetables as well as broad-acre crops. It also increases plant robustness in situations of salinity and drought. Agrobiomics has already advanced to field experiments and saw outstanding yield data for maize and soy. Furthermore, the technology is simple to incorporate into current farming methods, providing farmers with genuine “plug-and-play” solutions. This has created a market opportunity estimated at over $2 billion for Fortify.
Agrobiomics’ CEO, Ejner Bech Jensen, stated:
“Over the last two years, our outstanding team has created Agrobiomics from the ground up, verified the IP with impressive field results, and drawn in major partnerships. The Novo foundation-backed incubator, BII, has been a huge help to us. This indicates that we will assist farmers in addressing issues like salinity and drought, so helping to reduce CO2 emissions by over 100 million tons a year and possibly even facilitating soil reclamation. Our goal is to become the leader in BioAg by offering biological solutions for biotic and abiotic stress, and by using our naturally occurring, stable Streptomyces metabolites to substitute pesticides.”
Theis Malmborg, Partner at NOON Ventures, stated:
“The agricultural industry faces significant challenges to meet the demands 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, a biological solution that integrates seamlessly into current supply chains and agronomic techniques, has the potential to be a major enabler in the development of an agricultural system that is climate resilient.”
Theis further added: “We are glad to support the group and are eager to collaborate with them to develop technology and sell their products.”
