SGB Inc., a San Diego CA-based agricultural biotechnology and seed company, closed an $11m Series C financing.
Backers included current investors Thomas McNerney & Partners, Finistere Ventures and Flint Hills Resources (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries). In conjunction with the funding, Arama Kukutai joined the board as executive chairman and Miguel Motta as president and chief operating officer. Kirk Haney has stepped down as CEO to pursue other opportunities but remains a director of the company.
SGB, which enables the production of sustainable plant oil, protein and biomass, intends to use the funds to drive commercial partnerships and project deployments focused on Central America, India and Southeast Asia, and to further advance genetic improvement, and agronomic best practices to maximize the full potential of the crop.
Its latest generation of Jatropha hybrids, SGB has reduced the time to maturity from 5 years to 1-2 years.
FinSMEs
09/09/2014