Arcadia Biosciences raises $33 million Series D investment

Date:05-09-2014

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company focused on developing technologies and products that benefit the environment and human health, announced recently that it has closed on a $33 million round of Series D preferred share equity financing. The round was led with an investment of $30 million from Mandala Capital Limited, a dedicated agribusiness private equity fund focused on seed technology, among other sectors, in India. Nine existing investors, including CMEA Capital, BASF Venture Capital, and Saints Capital, also are participating in the round. Piper Jaffray & Co. served as Arcadia’s exclusive financial advisor for the transaction. With completion of the Series D round, total equity capital raised by Arcadia amounts to $101 million.

Arcadia plans to use proceeds from the financing to accelerate the development and commercial launch of products based on the company’s agronomic performance and product quality trait technologies.

Arcadia has recently announced the achievement of key performance and commercial development milestones by technology licensees in multiple crops. Based on results with the company’s Nitrogen Use Efficiency technology, Arcadia is developing core data for regulatory submissions. Verdeca LLC, Arcadia’s soybean joint venture with Bioceres S.A. of Argentina, recently announced the granting of a commercial development license for stress tolerance technology to GDM Seeds, a leading South American soybean seed company. Regulatory field trials of Verdeca’s stress tolerant soybeans have been completed in Argentina and the US to generate data for regulatory submissions, the first of which is anticipated during 2014.

“Multiple products based on Arcadia’s agronomic performance and product quality traits are currently in late-stage commercial development, and our SONOVA® 400 GLA Safflower Oil is already on market,” said Eric Rey, president and CEO of Arcadia. “The Series D funding enables us to continue working closely with our licensees and partners to accelerate progress, provide key data for commercial regulatory approvals, and pursue opportunities with new partners.”

“We are very pleased to have completed this investment in Arcadia Biosciences,” said Uday Garg, Managing Director of Mandala Capital Limited. “Our investment benefits from exposure to Arcadia’s highly developed, global seed technology platform that touches every major agricultural economy. We are particularly excited about the products in advanced development at Arcadia that address the acute need for crops with traits of water and nitrogen use efficiency, and abiotic stress including drought tolerance in our fund’s target market, India.”