RTP startups tackle world’s food supply: Showcasing agtech at Venture Connect

RERSEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Food science took centerstage at CED Venture Connect on Thursday, with three startups on a panel discussing “feeding the world” through agtech:

AgBiome, Inc, with CBO Daniel Tomso
Pairwise, with CMO Megan Thomas
BIOMILQ, with CEO Michelle Egger

“I think this area has always been a strong ecosystem for agtech, specifically in plant sciences,” said Hunter Young, Head of Capital for CED. “What I think we’ve found recently happening is—that’s expanding. More of the food innovation lifecycle is sort of infilling here, from certainly the stuff like in the ground, in the dirt, to more interesting stuff in the lab.”

Left to right, talking agtech: Karen LaVert, Partner at Peppas Capital; Daniel Tomso, Chief Business Officer at AgBiome, Inc.; Megan Thomas, Chief Marketing Officer with Pairwise; Michelle Egger, Chief Executive Officer with BIOMILQ. (Photo by Sarah Glova)

Meet the ‘feeding the world’ panel

AgBiome, Inc., an RTP-based biotechnology company, is developing and commercializing innovative biological and trait products for crop protection. They closed a $116M series-D round, led by Blue Horizon and Novalis LifeSciences, in late 2021.

Tomso called the region “amazingly attractive” for bioscience enterprises.

“There’s a very large ag footprint here, especially in the high tech side,” said Tomso. “There’s both large companies anchoring the space and small companies that have been coming along through the years.”

Tomso also said that our region has “enviable” talent.

“I say this with a certain amount of local pride,” said Tomso. “I talk to people at companies all over the world, and they’re all uniformly envious of our ability to attract and retain talent.”

Pairwise, a Durham-based startup, is focused on commercializing gene-edited crops. They closed a $90M series-B round, led by Pontifax AgTech and Deerfield, in early 2021.

According to Thomas, Pairwise is working in 12 different crops right now, with IP licensed from Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.

They recently launched a new brand, Conscious Food, and a new product, Conscious Greens, which leverages its CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology for a nutrient-dense packaged salad with a longer shelf-life than traditional salad products.

“I think that, kind of, the special sauce of that technology is pairing it up with folks like myself, who came from consumer food, and the other side of it,” said Thomas. “So really, connecting the technology to the consumer, to the channel, is an exciting opportunity, and it really underpins our business.”

BIOMILQ, a Durham-based women-owned startup, is developing cultured breastmilk. They closed a $21M series-A round, led by Novo Holdings, in 2021.

The startup is using an epithelial cell type to emulate the bodily process of creating breastmilk, which is essentially a “phase separation”—the cell type “phases” nutrients from a mother’s bloodstream into breastmilk.

Egger spoke about the company’s origin story, referencing the work of BIOMILQ’s Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Dr. Leila Strickland.

“Her genius was saying, ‘Human mammary epithelial cells can do this outside of the body, they can create this phase separation’,” said Egger.

BIOMILQ startup is currently launching a two-part study on breast milk and milk composition. Volunteers who are interested in participating can learn more at biomilq.com/study.

RTP food science startups tackle world’s food supply

The panel was moderated by Karen LaVert, Partner at Peppas Capital.

“North Carolina is on a trajectory to be the number one ecosystem for AgTech,” said LaVert in an interview after the panel. “The panel today highlighted some the most innovative, fastest growing companies in the space.”

According to Young, CED was focused on amplifying these innovations at Venture Connect because they represent growth in the agtech ecosystem.

“It’s a broadening that we thought was interesting for us to highlight,” said Young.

LaVert also commented on how these startups are addressing the global food supply.

“We have a huge challenge to feed the world,” said LaVert, “and these companies are creating healthier products and foods to achieve that mission.”