St. Louis agriculture technology startup Pluton Biosciences has raised a $16.5 million funding round it says will help expand its team and advance its initial products toward commercialization.
Illumina Ventures, an independently operated venture capital firm affiliated with San Diego-based biotechnology firm Illumina Inc. (Nasdaq: ILMN), and Boston-based RA Capital co-led the Series A funding round. Other investors in the deal include existing Pluton backers Fall Line Capital, the Grantham Foundation and First In Ventures, as well as new investors Wollemi, Radicle Growth and St. Louis-based venture investor iSelect Fund.
Founded in 2017, Pluton has developed a process, called micromining, that it says allows for examining microorganisms in soil samples that can be used to develop natural products designed to mitigate climate change and reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture.
Pluton’s Series A financing follows a $6.6 million seed round it raised in 2021. The fresh funding comes as Pluton seeks to advance development of its initial products, which are focused on carbon sequestration and pest control. The first product Pluton expects to bring to market is its Microbial Cover Crop, which growers would add to their soil to capture carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere to store in the soil. The other product it is developing is a pesticide targeting the fall armyworm, an insect known for its damage to crops.
“Microbial Cover Crops will enrich the soil with nitrogen to increase crop yields while reducing fertilizer costs, improving profits and sustainability, limiting erosion, and boosting both soil quality and carbon sequestration. We are proud to support Pluton in their work to improve nature's toolkit and revolutionize agriculture," said Michael Gillespie, analyst at RA Capital
Pluton is still years away from commercializing its products, but CEO Elizabeth Gallegos said the company is at a key point in its product development efforts with a focus on taking its research from the lab to test in the field. Pluton has plans to do field trials this year for its Microbial Cover Crop product, which Gallegos estimated could be commercialized by 2026. The pesticide product would come to market at a later date, Gallegos said.
As it advances development of its products, Gallegos said Pluton will put a focus on commercial partnerships and also expand its team. Pluton currently has about 20 employees and expects that to grow to about 35 in the next 18 months, Gallegos said. It will seek to hire for roles focused on computational biology, science leadership, product development and agronomy.
Gallegos said Pluton’s ability to raise financing, particularly in a tighter venture capital environment, highlights both the development of its technology as well as the promise that sustainable agriculture products can have on mitigating climate change.
“It’s been pretty difficult for companies to raise money over the last year or so. One of the spaces that things are still OK is this intersection of clean agriculture and climate,” she said. “We have successfully raised a lot of money. The technology is looking great and our team is expanding.”
For Illumina Ventures, which has traditionally backed health care companies, Pluton marks its first deal in the agriculture space, the startup said in a news release.
“In the past two decades, we have witnessed how genomics revolutionized the landscape of human diagnostics and therapeutics. We expect genomics to also enable breakthroughs in agriculture. Pluton’s Micromining approach, combining genomics with rigorous data science, can unlock the potential of soil microbes for more sustainable agriculture and beyond,” said Charles Lin, principal at Illumina Ventures.
Lin is joining Pluton’s board as part of the investment. Pluton also announced several other board appointments, including Gillespie of RA Capital; Neal Gutterson, partner and chief technology officer at Radicle Growth; and Jerry Steiner, who will be executive chair of the board.
Steiner is former CEO of St. Louis agtech startup CoverCress, which in 2022 sold a majority stake to Bayer AG. Steiner said Pluton fits into his efforts to work with companies that are seeking to bring sustainable agriculture products to farmer fields.
“I’m really focusing on companies that have a great potential to decarbonize agriculture and that’s really the promise of what this company brings,” Steiner said.
