July 7, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

FMC Corporation announced the launch of its new capital venture arm FMC Ventures to target strategic investments in innovative startups and early-stage companies developing and applying emerging agricultural technologies. 

FMC Corporation is an ag sciences company providing cutting-edge solutions to the world’s farmers via its diverse portfolio of crop protection, plant health, and pest and turf management products built via a pipeline of market-driven discovery and development.

FMC Ventures will strengthen this modality, by evaluating emerging agriculturally-relevant technologies, and providing a vehicle through which FMC can invest in those that offer a novel competitive advantage for FMC.

“At FMC, we are investing in the future of agriculture,” said Mark Douglas, president and CEO, FMC. “Through FMC Ventures, we are able to quickly identify, assess and invest in emerging, sustainable technologies that will complement our technology portfolio and deliver strong return on investment.”

FMC has identified that the most pressing challenges faced by the agricultural industry today are being addressed through AI, genomics, robotics, precision agriculture, biopesticides, synthetic biology, among other verticals. These advanced categories will be the initial focus of the fund, believing as progress in each of these fields begins to overlap, it will critically shift how crop inputs are developed, sold, and applied. 

With this in mind, FMC Ventures has announced its first investment in Trace Genomics – a chosen World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, recognized as one of the world’s most promising startups scaling at the cutting edge of technological and business innovation. 

Founded in 2015 by graduate students Diane Wu and Poornima Parameswaran – who met while at Stanford working in the lab of Nobel prize-winning geneticist, Dr. Andrew Fire – Trace Genomics uses machine learning and genomics to deliver never-before achieved insights for farmers.

Through its locations in Burlingame, California, and Ames, Iowa, Trace Genomics uses DNA sequencing with machine learning to explore how soil diseases emerge, and to identify beneficial microorganisms that can form the basis for biological products to combat harmful pathogens. 

Testing soil samples collected and submitted by farmers, the company uses high-throughput DNA sequencing, AI, and a growing database of microbial species present in agricultural soil to identify and profile the soil’s microbiome, creating the first scalable microbiome testing technology that can identify bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and pathogens, as well as their interactions with each other and plants.

“Trace Genomics’ superior sequencing and analytical approach to managing soil data will complement the growth objectives for our biological portfolio,” said Amar Singh, managing director, FMC Ventures.

“Understanding the important role of soil biology and accurate prediction of disease risk in fields will be increasingly important as the adoption of sustainable, biological crop protection products continues to accelerate around the world. Soil tests on the market today are insufficient to answer all the right questions in detail. Trace Genomics technology changes that.”

This investment in Trace Genomics follows a $13 million Series A led by Stage 1 Ventures that the company raised in late 2018, bringing total funding at that time to more than $19 million. Now, with the additional backing of FMC Ventures, Trace Genomics will be even better able to provide a deeper understanding of how microbes interact and affect crop production. 

“FMC has deep roots in the food production system worldwide—I know because I’ve worked with their products and technologies for over four decades,” said Dan Vradenburg, CEO, Trace Genomics. “Having a global leader like FMC in our corner validates our investments to change how we nurture soil, our most important agricultural asset.”

“To create a future where this planet can feed 10 billion people, we need to collaborate across the food and agriculture system,” continued Vradenburg.
“All stakeholders in agriculture—and certainly solution providers like FMC—want science-backed soil intelligence to unlock the full potential of our living soil. We look forward to collaborating with them as we expand agricultural practices and solutions to help improve farm productivity in a more sustainable manner and restore our living soil.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.