Pure play impact investor Blue Horizon has announced an investment in Syocin, a company that is developing treatments to protect food crops from bacterial disease.
The bactericides currently in common use can disrupt soil microbiomes, damage ecosystems, and pose a danger to agricultural workers. But Syocin’s high-precision protein-based solutions will be non-toxic and fully biodegradable.
The company is working on a proprietary Synthetic Biology Platform which will allow it to develop new biobactericides in the space of months rather than years. Syocin will begin by developing bactericides for diseases affecting citrus fruits and tomatoes, but it is hoped that the technology could ultimately be used to develop solutions for any plant bacterial disease.
LATAM biotech fund GRIDX and the European GISEV Family Office have also invested in Syocin, in expectation of the company’s seed funding round which will take place in the coming months.
“Bacterial diseases such as citrus canker are a major threat to global food production,” said Kieran Mahanty, Investment Director at Blue Horizon. “To date, there are few effective solutions and none which are kind to the environment and the health of farmworkers. Syocin’s biological approach has shown great early results and we are excited to support the team in scaling up their synthetic biology platform.”
Blue Horizon investments
Blue Horizon was founded with the intention of driving the change to a more sustainable food system. Syocin is just one of a series of recent investments by Blue Horizon — others include Arkeon, a company turning carbon dioxide into ultra-sustainable protein, and cultivated chocolate company California Cultured. Tomorrow Foods, an Argentinian alt-protein company, has also received investment.
“We are determined to use these funds to deepen and accelerate R&D efforts, and to enable a commercial outburst, not only in Argentina, but also across the whole Latin-American region,” said Agustin Belloso, CEO and co-founder at Tomorrow Foods. “We are humbled to have been entrusted by our investors with this responsibility.”
