March 29, 2018

CRISPR is in the news again, with California-based agtech startup Pairwise Plants securing a total of $125 million, including a $100 million technology collaboration with Monsanto accessing and developing Pairwise IP in row crop applications. The two companies will work together on gene-editing corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and canola crops. Pairwise also recently closed a $25 million Series A financing co-led by premier venture capital firm Deerfield Management and Monsanto Growth Ventures.

Pairwise was founded to find new ways to address global food challenges through gene-editing. The company has licensed programmable base editing technology from Harvard University and will be developing new gene-editing applications for use in research by Pairwise and Monsanto.  Pairwise also plans to develop its own new crop varieties in collaboration with other agriculture and consumer food companies.

Investors Bet Big On CRISPR, but Consumers have Doubts

CRISPR-Cas9 enables geneticists and researchers to edit parts of a genome by removing, adding, or altering sections of the DNA sequence. The primary benefits of the technology are that it is very inexpensive, easy to use, and compresses the development cycle – especially in agriculture, which has been altering the traits of plants and animals for millennia in ways that are for more time consuming and farm less precise.

Investors are betting that companies that can realize the benefits of improving yields through the technology will thrive, including the close of a $55.5 million Series C funding round by gene-editing company Inscripta, but the consumer market is in need of significant education, as a Washington Post article points out that that nearly 40 percent of Americans think genetically modified organisms are unhealthy.

Still, Monsanto sees the potential. “Part of Monsanto’s commitment to delivering new technologies to farmers is recognizing other innovators we can work with to accelerate solutions,” said Dr. Robb Fraley, Monsanto chief technology officer. “We are excited to be collaborating with the pioneers in gene editing at Pairwise to build on the robust body of research driven by our in-house team.”

By David Nitchman, GAI Media