July 26, 2019

by Lynda Kiernan

Bioagtech company Agrivida has closed on $8 million of a $20 million funding round, led by the Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund, which committed $3 million. Others participating in the round include existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, Batios Holdings Limited, Cultivian Sandbox, Syngenta Ventures, Maschhoff’s Agricultural Holdings and Middleland Capital. 

Headquartered in Village of Four Seasons, Missouri, Agrivida is a biotech company focused on animal health and nutrition and the development of feed additives for poultry, swine, dairy, beef cattle, and aquaculture. 

Founded in 2004 by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Agrivida has developed a biomolecular technology platform of plant-expressed enzymes derived from corn that can significantly improve the performance of animal nutrition products. 

The company’s GRAINZYME®Phytase expresses enzymes and proteins by utilizing plants as the core manufacturing and delivery system, providing a favorable sustainability profile and increased value to agricultural and aquaculture  producers. 

“Agrivida’s sustainability focus on animal feed has unlocked the power of the corn kernel to enhance the production and delivery of beneficial enzymes and other nutrients while improving the environment by reducing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus,” said Open Prairie’s founder and managing partner Jim Schultz.  

“Through strategic collaborations with poultry producers and the introduction of new products for the swine market later this year, Agrivida is well-positioned for significant growth opportunities.”

Leading this funding, the Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund, a vehicle operating as a USDA-licensed Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC), completed its final close at $81 million in February of this year. The capital was secured from a diverse investor partnership including 12 Farm Credit institutions, 14 commercial and community banks, and multiple strategic agriculturally related organizations.

The Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund was established as a vehicle geared to capitalize upon projected world population growth to 9 billion; a 70 percent increase in caloric demand; and crop demand growth of more than 100 percent by 2050.

The launch of the fund was originally announced in May 2016 by then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. At the time, Vilsack said, “What excites me about this particular fund is (that) one of its focuses is on precision agriculture and data management. As we become more sophisticated in agriculture, we need to become more precise, and we need information and data to be collected and analyzed properly.”

Under its mandate, the fund has identified multiple key sub-sectors along the agribusiness value chain that it will target as investment opportunities, including soil, water and crop technologies, monitoring, sensor and data analytics platforms, food safety, and value-added processing and manufacturing.

Over the life of the fund, Open Prairie expects to build out a portfolio of between 12 and 15 investments in growth and later stage companies in the agribusiness sector, with initial investment size of between $2 million and $5 million. Additional reserves will be held for follow-on investing.

“Agrivida is pleased to have Open Prairie join the investment syndicate and lead this round.  Their network and reach in the agriculture sector is significant and will add value to our strategic initiatives,” said Dan Meagher, president and CEO, Agrivida. 

The company plans to use the capital to facilitate the expansion of its research and development platform, and to foster the advancement of its commercialization strategy for its GRAINZYME® Phytase technology in the global swine and poultry sectors. 

“Through strategic collaborations with poultry producers and the introduction of new products for the swine market later this year, Agrivida is well-positioned for significant growth opportunities,” said Schultz.

“Agrivida has achieved a number of milestones including commercial revenue growth in poultry, approval from the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine on July 8, 2019 for sale of GRAINZYME® Phytase into U.S. Swine, early stage research and development success for solutions in Animal Health and Ruminant additives and forages,” said Meagher.

“Open Prairie’s commitment to Agrivida, along with our existing investors, positions Agrivida for a very bright future.  We plan to secure additional investors for the syndicate as we embark on an exciting phase of expansion for Agrivida.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.