Pluton Biosciences, a St. Louis, MO-based ag-tech startup, raised $16.5M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Illumina Ventures and RA Capital, with participation from existing investors Fall Line Capital, The Grantham Foundation, and First In Ventures, as well as new investors Wollemi, Radicle Growth, and iSelect. Illumina Ventures’ Charles Lin, PhD, has joined Pluton’s Board of Directors along with RA Capital’s Michael Gillespie, MD.
The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the development of its flagship product, the Microbial Cover Crop, through field trials and commercial partnerships.
Led by CEO Elizabeth Gallegos, Pluton works to drive agriculture to a carbon-negative outcome by leveraging Micromining and genomic technologies through an approach to identify and deploy beneficial microbes and their natural products. The company discovers novel microbes and develops solutions to the planet’s big problems, addressing challenges to climate and agriculture by tackling carbon sequestration and crop protection.
Concurrent with this investment, agricultural industry veterans Jerry Steiner and Neal Gutterson, Ph.D. also joined Pluton’s Board of Directors.
FinSMEs
24/05/2023