Trendlines' fund makes US$1.6m investment in seed-breeding business
CATALIST-LISTED startup incubator Trendlines Group on Wednesday said its Agrifood fund has invested US$1.6 million in seed-breeding technology firm, Equinom.
This is the fund's first investment.
The Trendlines Agrifood Fund was set up last September, when it received conditional commitments of up to US$22 million from investors, including Temasek and Librae Holdings, an entity related to UK business tycoon Vincent Tchenguiz.
The fund is investing US$1.6 million out of a US$10 million round, alongside lead investor BASF Venture Capital, the investment arm of global materials and chemical company BASF.
Existing investors include Israeli private equity fund Fortissimo Capital, as well as Roquette, which touts itself as a global leader in plant-based ingredients for food, nutrition and health markets.
According to Trendlines, Equinom's non-genetically modified organism technology optimises seed functionality to increase plant yield, nutritional value and disease resistance among other things, which tie in with the fund's strategy.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Garage
The hottest news on all things startup and tech to kickstart your week.
In a press statement on Wednesday, Trendlines said: "Equinom leverages traditional cross-breeding with computational genetic algorithms to develop new seed varieties... at significantly higher speeds. Their bioinformatics-based technology accelerates seed breeding, achieving new levels of productivity to enable the creation of high-protein crops for sustainable plant proteins."
Trendlines previously announced that it intends to invest 66 per cent of the fund's capital in commercial- or growth-stage companies.
As at 4.38pm on Wednesday, Trendlines shares were trading at 12.8 Singapore cents, down 0.1 cent or 0.8 per cent.
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Companies & Markets
Porsche posts Q1 profit drop on ramp-up costs
IBM plots US$730 million expansion of Canadian semiconductor site
Seatrium unit to fully redeem S$500 million worth of floating-rate bonds early
Yeo Guat Kwang, John Chen retiring from corporate boards
US: Wall St opens higher
Air China orders homegrown C919s in challenge to jet duopoly