Zurich, Switzerland, Norwich, UK, 6 July 2022 – Blue Horizon, a next generation impact investor accelerating the transition to a new Sustainable Food System, today announced an investment in Tropic Biosciences, a pioneering agricultural-biotechnology company dedicated to the development of high-performance varieties of tropical crops. Blue Horizon is joined in the investment by DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform, Skyviews Life Science, Bloom8 (FKA Rage Capital), Tekfen Ventures and Sucden Ventures.
Blue Horizon today announced an investment in Tropic Biosciences, leading a USD 35 million round for the company. Driven by its mission of harnessing cutting edge innovation to crops and regions where it is most needed, Tropic’s crop products promote grower wellbeing, consumer health and sustainable environmental practices by using cutting-edge gene editing technologies, such as its proprietary GEiGS® platform.
Tropic is focused on a crop portfolio of bananas, coffee and rice; each of which faces a unique set of challenges. There is a global need to address these challenges as the potential impact reaches more than half a billion people worldwide. While coffee is the most consumed beverage globally after water, banana is the most consumed fruit in the world. Rice accounts for roughly 25% of global calories consumption thus bringing the combined total market that Tropic addresses to over USD 400 billion.
Climate change is reducing farming yields and contribute to the outbreak of agricultural diseases. The resulting surge in food prices leads to critical food security issues globally. Tropical regions such as Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, where average expenses on food as part of household income are far greater than in North America or Europe, will ultimately suffer the most. Tropic is working closely with growers in these important regions, and in doing so, promotes consumer wellbeing and positive grower economics, while increasing crop stability and addressing unmet nutritional needs.
Gilad Gershon, CEO of Tropic Biosciences, said: “While we remain well funded from our 2020 Series B, the new investment will allow us to accelerate and expand our efforts to bring our novel products to market and address critical challenges faced by growers. We are delighted to have Blue Horizon as a leading impact investor, as well as other outstanding new investors, join our journey and support us in evolving agriculture to sustain people and planet.”
Björn Witte, CEO of Blue Horizon, said: “At Blue Horizon we are all about creating impact at scale. Tropic Biosciences and the solutions it provides to millions of people around the globe is a perfect example of the kind of companies we want to be involved in. Tropic will have a massively positive impact in an area that may not make the front pages of our newspapers every day, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important, quite the contrary.”
To date, Blue Horizon has raised funds of over $850 million and invested in 70+ companies with a focus on protein alternatives and food tech. Some of the firm’s most recent investments include AgBiome, the leader in developing innovative products from the Earth’s microbial communities, Planted, one of the emerging leaders of plant-based meat alternatives and Mosa Meat, which is developing tissue engineering technologies to mass produce affordable, cultured meat and dairy formulation.
Tropic Biosciences raises USD 35 million led by Blue Horizon (PDF)