Medford, Massachusetts, USA
September 13, 2017
GreenLight Biosciences, Inc. announced today the completion of its $18 million Series D round of financing led by Fall Line Capital. S2G Ventures, Lewis and Clark Ventures, and Macro Capital Investments participated in the round, along with the majority of GreenLight's existing investors, including Kodiak Venture Partners, MLSCF, Syngenta Ventures and others. GreenLight is harnessing its Cell-Free Bioprocessing® platform to develop a portfolio of RNA-based products for use in agriculture.
"We believe that GreenLight's proprietary Cell-Free platform, and its pipeline of RNA-based products targeting significant applications in agriculture, are truly unique in the industry," said Eric O'Brien, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fall Line Capital. "Double-stranded RNAs (dsRNA) produced with GreenLight's Cell-Free platform have the potential to revolutionize how agricultural pests are addressed and controlled at a global scale, using highly-specific, sustainable approaches."
RNA molecules have been demonstrated as powerful biological tools to arrest some of the most pernicious agricultural pests. In contrast with traditional chemical insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, dsRNA-based bio-pesticides can be designed – using current sequencing and bio-informatic technologies – to have high pesticidal efficacy with unprecedented levels of specificity and sustainability. This means that GreenLight's platform technology can be employed to directly address the target pest, while completely sparing beneficial and benign organisms, with minimal impact to the environment. Compelling production economics, successful delivery of dsRNA and a science-based regulatory regime comprise some of the key success factors for biological dsRNA products. GreenLight is successfully advancing on all of these fronts.
GreenLight plans to use the funds to accelerate development and field testing of a number of dsRNA molecules targeting insect and viral pests in high-value crops. "The RNA production platform technology of GreenLight Biosciences has profound implications across the diverse businesses of production agriculture, animal and human nutrition, animal breeding and even cellular therapeutics," said Ganesh Kishore, Managing Partner at MLSCF. "We are excited to be a part of the investment ecosystem in assisting the company advance its initial offerings in crop production agriculture."
GreenLight plans to bring these novel dsRNA-based products to market through several established partnerships with some of the world's leading agricultural and chemical companies, as well as through direct sales channels. "We are excited to collaborate with the best and the brightest industrial partners," said Andrey J. Zarur, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GreenLight Biosciences. "The completion of our Series D round of financing allows us to expedite the commercialization of these next-generation agricultural products. We are thrilled to welcome our new investors and have the continued support of our existing investors to further our cause."
The funds will also be used to round up GreenLight's top-tier team. "We are grateful to have partnered with Greenlight Biosciences from its inception. This talented and committed team of entrepreneurial engineers, molecular biologists and technologists have invented and optimized a world-changing commercial bioprocessing platform and, after years of fundamental development, the Company is now commercially scaling the production of RNA materials to target the launch of break though new products in agriculture, food systems and healthcare," said David Furneaux, CEO of BlueIO and Managing Partner of Kodiak Venture Partners. "The continued support of this group of investors represents a vote of confidence and support of the company's exciting growth plan and the positive impact it will have on our planet."
About GreenLight Biosciences
GreenLight Biosciences, Inc. has developed a unique Cell-Free bioprocessing platform capable of producing RNA sequences of exceptional fidelity in a fully-scalable fashion at a fraction of the costs of other technologies. The company is focused on development of dsRNA-based products for crop agriculture, and is developing further RNA offerings in the areas of public health, vaccine development and human therapeutics. GreenLight has established partnerships with some of the world's leading chemical and agricultural companies to develop and commercialize its products.
GreenLight is committed to helping reduce the harmful effects of chemical emissions into our environment and to doing its part in fighting global climate change. GreenLight is an equal-opportunity employer and believes in diversity and gender-equality in the work place.
Further information is available on the Company's website: http://www.greenlightbio.com
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