Chicago, Illinois, USA
July 22, 2019
Today, at AgTech Nexus USA, NewLeaf Symbiotics and Joyn Bio announced a long-term partnership valued at up to $75M to bring innovation and sustainability to modern agriculture with a new class of microbes that benefit crop health and protection. Through this deal, Joyn, an ag-biotech company engineering microbes for more sustainable agriculture, will gain access to NewLeaf's extensive library of proprietary, highly-characterized strains of plant colonizing microbes. Joyn will engineer these microbes to bring novel disease and pest control options to farmers and reduce their reliance on chemicals.
"Partnering with NewLeaf's team of experts and technology is game-changing for Joyn Bio and our efforts to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in the agriculture industry. Our team at Joyn will now be better equipped to take these microbes to the next level of performance and ultimately into the field," said Mike Miille, CEO of Joyn Bio. "The potential to pair our platform for microbial engineering with NewLeaf's microbes will bring unprecedented performance to biological agriculture solutions."
Farmers are increasingly grappling with the realities of climate change and the need to feed a growing population, yet the agriculture industry lacks solutions that are cost-effective, high-performing and environmentally friendly. Together, NewLeaf and Joyn are poised to accelerate the widespread adoption of microbial solutions to minimize the industry's carbon footprint and broader environmental impact.
"The challenges farmers face daily require bold and novel solutions, and the community is eager for the next wave of agriculture innovation – and microbes are powerful engines for helping crops and farming businesses thrive," said Tom Laurita, CEO and co-founder of NewLeaf Symbiotics. "This collaboration with Joyn is a significant milestone for us and can lead to revolutionary advancements in sustainable agriculture."
NewLeaf has deep expertise and IP in genomics and production thanks to its platform, the Prescriptive Biologics™ Knowledgebase, combining nature and machine learning. This computational engine curates genotype and phenotype data and predicts the performance of microbes from the vast NewLeaf library. Joyn Bio brings deep expertise in crop science along with exclusive access to the genetic codebase and biological engineering foundries of Ginkgo Bioworks, the leader in organism design. Together, these companies will help define the future of agriculture.
This collaboration will reduce the time to market for Joyn's flagship nitrogen-fixing microbe by two to three years and will support the company's expansion into crop protection. Joyn will have an exclusive license to leverage select NewLeaf microbes for developing novel solutions that deliver a range of important benefits to plants, including nitrogen-fixation and crop protection capabilities. NewLeaf will receive an upfront payment and payments for achieved milestones throughout the agreement term.
About Joyn Bio
Joyn Bio is bringing synthetic biology to agriculture for better ways to feed the world. An independent company backed by agriculture and synthetic biology leaders Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, Joyn engineers microbes to improve naturally occurring processes like nitrogen fixation, bringing growers more reliable solutions for crop protection and nutrition without the environmental tax. Joyn Bio brings together leading scientists with diverse backgrounds at its two sites in Boston, Massachusetts and Woodland, California. For more information, visit www.joynbio.com.
About NewLeaf Symbiotics
NewLeaf Symbiotics is an agricultural technology company engaged in discovery, development, production, and commercialization of products containing beneficial plant microbes (M-trophs). NewLeaf's family of products helps farmers increase yield by promoting stronger plants and better nutrient uptake, ultimately contributing to the transformation of agriculture towards a more sustainable future. Its 40-plus member team is based in BRDG Park at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Mo. Visit NewLeaf Symbiotics at www.newleafsym.com.
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