Argentine ag biologicals startup Puna Bio has closed its Series A round with an additional investment from the Gates Foundation, which will enable the startup to expand to markets beyond Latin America.
This is the first investment for Gates Foundation in an Argentina-based startup; financial terms were not disclosed.
Puna Bio first announced the Series A investment, led by Corteva Catalyst, in April of this year. VC firm At One Ventures also participated.
The addition of Gates Foundation as an investor will help Puna Bio expand throughout the world, “providing solutions that can make agriculture in these regions more productive, sustainable, and resilient to the effects of climate change,” CEO and co-founder Franco Martínez Levis tells AgFunderNews.
Puna’s biologicals use extremophiles—microorganisms that can develop and survive in extreme conditions—to strengthen crops against harsh environmental conditions, such as the high temperatures impacting many parts of the world due to climate change. The company integrates these extremophiles into a shelf-stable products growers apply as a seed coating.
“Internationalization” and expanding its product portfolio are the main objective of the company’s Series A, says Levis.
With the Gates Foundation, that includes bringing Puna Bio products to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and developing new products tailored to the specific needs of that region—new crops and their exact nutritional needs, for example.
“We are deeply aligned with the Gates Foundation’s priority of ensuring food security at a global scale,” he adds.
“Through their work on this objective, the Foundation has gathered immense experience around challenges, opportunities, and mechanisms to 1) design the tools that are needed by smallholder farmers in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia and 2) how to effectively deploy the solutions at scale, to amplify the impact of such technologies cost-effectively.”
Levis has in the recent past highlighted “a clear trend of growth and adoption” for ag biologicals in Latin America, too.
“The strong technical expertise, combined with the large and growing market, and the possibility to scale global solutions arising from LATAM, is what is driving the increased interest in the region,” he noted earlier this year.
Brazil may dominate currently, but other markets including Argentina are beginning to showcase growth, too. Argentina as well as Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay are helping lead the region’s uptake of ag biologicals.
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