Agrivida raises $15M in key Series C bioenergy feedstock financing

In Massachusetts, Agrivida announced that it has raised $15 million as part of a Series C financing to advance the development and commercialization of its proprietary technologies. Bright Capital Partners led the round.  Other Series C investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, Prairie Gold, Presidio, Gentry Venture Partners, Northgate Capital, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, and Syngenta Ventures.  Additional terms were not disclosed.

“The financing will enable us to continue the development and commercialization of our proprietary INzyme™ platform, which will allow our partners to produce non-food biomass with properties customized to enhance specific chemical processes, including generation of cellulosic biofuels and other related products, within existing infrastructure,” said Mark Wong, CEO of Agrivida.
Earlier this year, Agrivida launched its first significant field production of INzymeTM materials in U.S. Department of Agriculture-regulated trials. Materials from these trials will be used in larger-scale agricultural and industrial processing trials, to refine both field performance and processing characteristics of Agrivida-modified feedstocks.

Agrivida is developing improved crops with enzyme expression for production of biofuels and bioproducts from non-food agricultural residues and dedicated biomass crops. The company has entered into research and development agreements with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), ARPA–E, the USDA, and other partner companies.

Looking in depth at Agrivida

The Digest profiled Agrivida in “The (Next) Next-Gen Cellulosic Biofuels”, here.

We looked at the company’s joint development agreement with POET for cellulosic ethanol, here.

We looked at the start-up of extensive field trials of its non-food ebnergy crops that contain dormant enzymes, here.

More on the story.