Institut Curie applauds the €11 million fundraising achieved by its spin-off Meiogenix

Institut Curie applauds the $13 million (€11 million) Series A financing round achieved by its spin-off Meiogenix, an agriculture biotech company using the process of Chromosome Editing to expand genetic diversity in food and agriculture. The closing was led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from Genoa Ventures, Bpifrance, Casdin Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.

We're at an exciting stage of our development. The Series A funding will provide capital for our implementation in the United States and further product development. The caliber of our global investor syndicate reflects our international expansion strategy to pursue innovation in Europe and focus product development in North America.

said Luc Mathis, CEO of Meiogenix.

Meiogenix has developed an innovative approach to common problems in agriculture, addressing key global food and industrial challenges. Meiogenix is applying gene and chromosome editing technologies to accelerate nature's generation of biodiversity through the mixing of parental genomes during plant reproduction. This helps expedite the lengthy process of plant varieties selection and also leads to increased biodiversity, lost during the systematic selection of crops for high yield and long shelf life. The ability to restore a plant's immunity to pests and diseases, and improve quality, taste and flavor in many crops also has the potential to revolutionize the AgriFood Tech sector. Key benefits of the platform include more access to natural food products for customers and less chemicals required in growing food.

This investment reflects our expanding interest in the application of biotech in agriculture. Meiogenix has the potential to revolutionize the way we enhance the natural properties of plants so that they are more resistant to viruses, better tasting, and produce higher yield. We are confident in this team's ability to bring its groundbreaking science to significantly improve the safety and sustainability of our global food systems.

said Michael Krel, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, and a key member of the Sofinnova Industrial Biotech Funds.

The Meiogenix platform addresses the $50 billion commercial seed market and breeding capabilities of large and essential crops like corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and tomatoes.   

Our investment in Meiogenix is based on their unique approach to solving critical bottlenecks in food production for the commercial seed industry, a rapidly growing market expected to surpass $60 billion by 2025. The agriculture industry is ripe for translating great innovations in life sciences to agricultural applications, and leaders in the space are investing heavily in the latest gene editing technologies to accelerate improved product development. Meiogenix's relationships with innovative industry leaders like Bayer further demonstrate the enormous potential for the Meiogenix platform to usher in the next stage of progress for the agricultural industry.

said Jenny Rooke, Ph.D., Founder and Managing Director of Genoa Ventures.