Sound Agriculture, an East Bay agriculture startup that uses biochemistry to redesign plants without genetically modifying them, has raised $75 million.
The Series D round was led by BMO Impact Investment Fund and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and included FootPrint Coalition, Leaps by Bayer, Syngenta Group Ventures, S2G Ventures, Fall Line Capital, Cavallo Ventures and Northpond Ventures. The round brings the Emeryville company's total funding to $155 million.
CTO Travis Bayer and Chief Administrative Officer Eric Davidson founded Sound Agriculture in 2013. CEO Adam Litle joined the company in 2020, according to his LinkedIn. It currently has 134 employees.
“We’re committed to fighting a trifecta of issues that include food insecurity, environmental damage and poor health — all of which are addressable with the right technology and practices. We will use this investment to advance our research platforms, grow sales and marketing in the U.S. and abroad, and sign new partnerships to support better methods of farming and food system resiliency,” Litle said in a statement.
The company says its technology can be used to make produce more nutritious and even better tasting, and its mission also involves helping farmers "face modern day challenges caused by extreme weather, supply chain disruptions, and escalating prices," according to its website.
To do all of this, Sound Agriculture modifies the production of proteins within plants by soaking seeds in a solution that encourages plants to select specific traits.
“We really have discovered some fundamental science that lets us accelerate that process to a matter of months,” Bayer told the Business Times in 2020 when the company raised a $22 million Series C round.
