Hybrid Potato Breeding Company Solynta, based in Wageningen, the Netherlands, closed its Series C funding round raising €21 million from a consortium of investors.
The potato is the 4th most produced food crop after corn, wheat and rice and is increasing in importance globally due to its high nutritional value. Solynta’s innovation of hybrid potatoes makes it possible to distribute new potato varieties from clean disease-free true potato seed (TPS) instead of bulky and diseased seed tubers. This technology, which is GMO free, makes it possible to rapidly develop new potato varieties that are attuned to needs in the market. For example a higher nutritional value or resistances to drought and diseases. Moreover, TPS has major logistical benefits as 25 grams of true seed is comparable to 2,500 kg of seed tubers. True seed is easier to store and cheaper to transport compared to traditional seed tubers, which helps to reduce environmental impact and improve sustainability.
Solynta will use the proceeds of this financing round to accelerate it’s growth, broaden product development to cater to more market segments and to scale-up the commercial organization in order to address the challenges within the multi-billion dollar potato supply chain.
“With this funding round Solynta will be able to leverage its pasts successes and enhance its focus on down-stream activities. This will allow Solynta to aggressively speed up its product pipeline as well as its market facing activities,” said Hein Kruyt, Solynta’s CEO.
“We are impressed by the tremendous progress that the team has made so far,” says Harm de Vries, partner at Innovation Industries. “We are proud to continue to support Solynta in its journey to revolutionize potato breeding and unleash the full potential of potato to feed the world.”
Yoav Hineman, partner at Fortissimo Capital said: “We are very excited by Solynta’s progress in developing its technology and in attracting significant interest from leading companies in the agriculture sector. Solynta’s revolutionary technologies and products are game-changers that will address demands in multiple global markets. I look forward to the Company’s success.”
