Inari Agriculture, a US-based agritech startup, that wants to make ‘personalized seeds’ for farmers, raised $40 million in Series B Funding led by Flagship Pioneering, the life sciences-focused venture capital firm. The company will use proceeds from this round to invest in technology and talent.
Another investors in this round was Alexandria Venture Investments and Acre Venture Partners. Inari says it has now raised $55 million total.
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Flagship Pioneering founded the company in 2016, but was officially launched last month with Ponsi Trivisvavet, as CEO. The company aims to develop new types of seeds at a fraction of the cost and time commitment that the process usually takes, a feat made possible by a combination of data analytics and biological technologies like CRISPR.
Inari says it is uses CRISPR gene-editing technology to develop seeds customized with the traits that help a crop grow best in the local conditions—humidity, temperatures, soil type—where it will be planted. So far, the startup has tested its approach in the lab and in greenhouses.
Trivisvavet said last month that the company is first planning to make new types of wheat, soy and corn seeds, and it expects its first seeds to be in the ground next year.