• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Technologies.org

Technology Trends: Follow the Money

  • Technology Events 2023-2024
  • Sponsored Post
    • Make a Contribution
  • Technology Jobs
  • Technology Markets
    • Venture Capital
  • About
  • Contact

Pivot Bio Closes $70 Million Series B Financing to Deliver First and Only Clean Alternative to Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer for U.S. Corn Farmers

October 2, 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Pivot Bio announced today $70 million in a Series B funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and includes Singapore-headquartered investment company, Temasek. This funding further strengthens Pivot Bio’s 2019 commercial launch of the first and only nitrogen-producing microbes for U.S. corn farmers. Recently named Pivot Bio PROVENTM, this product supplies a clean alternative to synthetic nitrogen to the crop each day. The new funding will also support expanded research and development for the company’s second-generation product, a seed treatment option, as well as product introductions beyond the U.S. in markets such as Brazil, Argentina and Canada. Within the company’s pipeline, Pivot Bio is developing nitrogen-producing microbes for other crops beyond corn, including wheat and rice.

“Breakthrough Energy Ventures is the perfect lead investor in Pivot Bio’s Series B funding. We both share a vision of a more sustainable food system and a commitment to a better planet,” said Karsten Temme, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Pivot Bio. “This round of funding enables Pivot Bio to introduce our products to the world. We’re excited to deliver a product to farmers that increases their productivity while improving the quality of our air and water through reduced fertilizer-linked pollution.”

Backed by an investor group that includes many of the world’s top business leaders, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) has more than $1 billion in committed capital to fund scientific breakthroughs with the potential to deliver affordable, reliable clean energy. To address the unique challenges of energy innovation, BEV provides flexible and patient capital with a 20-year horizon, as well as deep scientific expertise. The fund invests across five grand challenges: electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings. These are the broad areas of activity that contribute most to greenhouse gas emissions.

“Pivot Bio is addressing one of the largest sources of GHGs on the planet – the potent nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions associated with the use of synthetic fertilizers,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “We’ve been extremely impressed with the team, their differentiated approach to crop nutrition, and their commitment to creating value for the farmer. This company has an opportunity to make a meaningful positive difference for our environment while disrupting the $200 billion fertilizer market.”

A small portion of existing chemical fertilizer decomposes into nitrous oxide and becomes a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than CO2, making it responsible for about 5 percent of global warming. Worldwide fertilizer-linked pollution significantly contributes to the more than 500 dead zones: places so toxic that nothing lives. One of the largest is where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

“While fertilizer is a critical input for producing enough food to feed the planet, its current use is unsustainable for the farmer and pollutes our environment,” said Temme. “Pivot Bio’s PROVENTM solution helps make farming more efficient and reduce the environmental footprint of fertilizer.”

Through an extensive discovery process and patented approach, Pivot Bio identifies specific microbes in a crop’s own roots that have the innate ability to produce nitrogen. However, these microbes are wired to shut down their natural ability to feed plants when nitrogen is plentiful in the soil. Fertilizer use over the past century has silenced the power of these microbes. Through its proprietary non-transgenic technology, Pivot Bio reawakens the microbes’ capability to produce nitrogen and designed a product that farmers apply in furrow at planting. The microbes adhere to the root and deliver nitrogen in a timely and efficient manner. The need for excess chemical nitrogen fertilizer is eliminated, resulting in more productive and predictable crop yields without nutrient degradation, volatilization, leaching, or runoff into waterways.

“We implement many sustainability practices on our farm. Being part of Pivot Bio’s Intent to Pivot 2018 pilot program was a good fit with how we manage our farm,” said Iowa-based farmer Tim Couser of Couser Farms. “This product has the potential to make positive changes on our family’s farm, and we are pleased to add Pivot Bio PROVENTM to our program.”

Cooper Rinzler of Breakthrough Energy and Dheeraj Mehta of Temasek will join Pivot Bio’s board of directors effective immediately. Other board members include Temme, Pivot Bio’s chief scientific officer and co-founder Alvin Tamsir, Matt Ocko of DCVC (Data Collective), and Roger Wyse of Spruce Capital Partners.

As the first nitrogen-producing microbial product available for U.S. corn farmers, Pivot Bio PROVENTM is already approved for use in states that represent about half of the U.S. corn producing market. Additional state approvals are also in process for 2018 and 2019.

Pivot Bio Series A investors included co-leads DCVC (Data Collective) and Monsanto Growth Ventures, as well as Prelude Ventures and Spruce Capital Partners. Seed funding investors included co-leads DCVC (Data Collective) and Monsanto Growth Ventures. The company received early support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Pivot Bio was recently named to the Forbes Most Innovative AgTech Startups list, and the recipient of two Business Intelligence Group awards including Sustainability Leadership and the Sustainability Product of the Year.

About Pivot Bio

At Pivot Bio, we believe in meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Our unparalleled understanding of the crop microbiome will help create a future with cleaner water and air. We are dedicated to providing farmers with solutions, so they can grow high-quality, environmentally-responsible and sustainably focused food crops that help feed families worldwide. For more information, visit www.pivotbio.com

SOURCE Pivot Bio

Related Links
http://www.pivotbio.com

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: venture capital

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Market Analysis

The Growing Tin Market: Prospects for Future Demand and Sustainability
Prospects for the Growing Lithium Market in the Coming Years
DevOps and Agile: Integrating Development and Operations
China’s Use of Golden Shares: From Reducing State Role to Quietly Controlling Tech Giants
Why Amazon Acquired One Medical: Disrupting the Healthcare Industry with Technology-Enabled Care
The End of an Era: Why China is No Longer Viable as the World’s Factory
Cloudflare’s FedRAMP authorization opens up a huge market opportunity in the US government sector

Market Research Media

How plunging birthrates threaten national economies
Agile Leadership: Leading Agile Teams for Success
Chinese Brands Reach New Heights of Popularity in the West Amid Growing Political Tensions
Unrestricted Streaming: How VPNs Can Enhance Media Consumption Experience
How the world’s biggest companies have built and defended their moats
Virtual Learning Environments: A Game-Changer in Education?
Streaming video, training, and gaming coming together to form a cohesive and diverse media and entertainment ecosystem

Secondary Sidebar

Tech Events

GitHub Universe 2023 will be held on November 8-9 in San Francisco, California
Upcoming Technology Events of 2023
Space Symposium 2023, April 17-20, Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colorado
The Yugabyte’s third annual Distributed SQL Summit (DSS) Asia, March 28, 2023
NVIDIA GTC, a global conference for the era of AI and the metaverse, March 20-23, 2023

Venture Capital

African Venture Investment Soars to Record High, Fueled by Tech Startups
Pitchly Secures $7 Million Series A Funding for SaaS-Based Data Enablement Solution
Agile Project Management: Roles and Responsibilities
Candidly, a student debt and savings optimization platform, has raised $20.5 million in a Series B round of financing
GameTech Startups Attracting Venture Capital Funding: The Importance of VPN Security

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Japan Revamps Chip Strategy, Aims to Triple Sales by 2030
  • New Cloud Computing Startup Evroc Seeks €3 Billion to Challenge Amazon
  • Apple Vision Pro Review
  • IBM announced plans to build its first European quantum data center in Zurich, Switzerland
  • Hydrogen Technology: The Key to a Sustainable Future for the Cruise and Shipping Industries
  • Regenerative Finance: Shifting Towards Sustainable and Equitable Financial Systems
  • Why Arm Ltd May Build Its Own Semiconductor
  • Dragonfly Announces New Kubernetes Operator for In-Memory Datastore for Simplified Operations and Increased Performance
  • Cosmic Crops Return: Seeds Sent to Space to Develop Resilient Crops for a Warming World
  • AI Developer

App Coding

Maximizing Your Coding Skills with ChatGPT: A Guide
A developer’s job isn't just to churn out code every day
Join Our Team as an App Coder - Build Cutting-Edge Applications
Exploring Two Approaches to Moonshot Software Projects: 1000 Monkeys Method vs. Planned Approach
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Social Media Data Analysis and Visualization App

API Coding

How to stop API breaches
Building More Resilient APIs through Negative Testing
How to connect to the DALL-E API
API Security Guide
How to teach yourself API coding

Blockchaining

State of Technology Overview: Blockchaining 2023
Join Our Team as a Blockchain Developer - Revolutionize the Future
Discontinuation of TradeLens: The End of a Blockchain-Enabled Global Trade Platform by Maersk and IBM
The Role of Blockchain in Digital Identity Management
Exploring the Potential of Blockchain Technology: A Comprehensive Overview

Event Calendar

PCIM Europe 2023, May 9-11, 2023, Nuremberg Exhibition Center, Nuremberg, Germany
Interwire Trade Exposition, May 9-11, 2023, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA
ProMat 2023, the leading trade show for the manufacturing and supply chain industry, March 20-23 2023, Chicago’s McCormick Place
Prints 2023, Printing Conference, March 3, 2023
Milan Design Week 2023, April 17-23 2023, Milan, Italy

Copyright © 2022 Technologies.org

Media Partners: Market Analysis & Market Research and Exclusive Domains

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT