Biographica, a London-based startup using artificial intelligence to revolutionize crop genetics, has successfully closed a $9.5 million seed funding round. The investment, led by Faber VC, will fuel the company's mission to accelerate the development of climate-resilient and higher-yielding crops. This announcement coincides with a new strategic partnership with BASF’s vegetable seeds business, Nunhems, marking a significant step in the company's commercial growth.
Overcoming the Innovation Bottleneck in Agriculture
The development of new crop varieties is a notoriously slow and expensive process, often taking over a decade to bring a new trait to market. A primary challenge lies in identifying the specific genes that control desirable traits like drought tolerance or disease resistance. This discovery phase has traditionally relied on methods with very low success rates, significantly hindering agricultural innovation and responsiveness to environmental pressures.
Biographica aims to shatter this bottleneck with its advanced AI platform, which has demonstrated the ability to identify proven gene targets up to 12 times faster than conventional methods. The company's technology not only speeds up the process but also uncovers novel genetic targets that traditional approaches often miss. This capability promises to significantly reduce R&D timelines and costs for seed companies globally, enabling faster innovation.
From Correlation to Causation with AI
Traditional genetic mapping techniques primarily establish a statistical correlation between a gene and a trait, without confirming a direct causal link. Biographica’s platform moves beyond this by using machine learning and knowledge graphs to predict which genes have a causal impact on a specific characteristic. This deeper understanding allows for more precise and effective gene editing strategies, increasing the probability of successful trait development.
At the core of the system are foundation models trained on vast public and proprietary genomic datasets, making the platform both crop- and trait-agnostic. This approach allows Biographica to provide value without initial reliance on sensitive partner data, a key differentiator in the industry. The platform continuously improves through a "lab-in-the-loop" model, where experimental results are fed back to refine its predictive accuracy.
Strategic Funding and Industry Partnerships
The $9.5 million investment will be strategically deployed to expand Biographica’s proprietary data collection and extend its AI platform to new crop traits. Cecily Price, CEO of Biographica, stated, “We’ve seen AI reshape pharma, turning trial-and-error pipelines into learnable biological systems. We’re bringing that same discipline to crops.” The funding will also be used to deepen commercial relationships across the global seed industry.
Securing partnerships with industry leaders like BASF and Cibus was crucial for attracting investors and validating the technology's commercial potential. These collaborations provided early proof points of the platform's high accuracy rates within real-world commercial settings. Sofia Santos, a partner at lead investor Faber VC, highlighted that improving crop genetics is the most powerful lever for building agricultural resilience against climate change.
Biographica's successful seed round and strategic partnerships signal a pivotal shift towards AI-driven innovation in agriculture. By transforming crop genetics into a more predictable and efficient biological system, the company is poised to make a substantial impact on global food security. This infusion of capital and technology promises to accelerate the development of next-generation crops capable of thriving in a changing world.
Source: AFN