ZeaKal raises money for biotech traits to increase yield

Date:04-01-2013

ZeaKal, a plant science company incubated from the pipeline of Kapyon Ventures, LLC, announced it has completed a $3.8 million Series A raise to develop its HME technology platform across major crops. The investment, led by Finistere Ventures, Two Oceans and the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (MSMC), and supported by ZeaKal’s Executive Chairman, Jerry Caulder, Ph.D., provides ZeaKal the means to focus on specific crop targets including soybeans and rice.

ZeaKal’s HME technology has shown crop yield and oil content increases of up to 50 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

“ZeaKal is very fortunate to have the backing of such a solid investment consortium,” says Han Chen, CEO of ZeaKal. “We now have both a strong financial syndicate led by Finistere Ventures and through the MSMC, a powerful development partner with an established distribution and customer base to accelerate our program faster than we had hoped with just the capital alone.”

“The ZeaKal technology has proven to be extremely effective in increasing yields in other crops,” says Dale Ludwig, CEO, MSMC, “Their technology can revolutionize the future of soybean yields and deserves the support of the investment community and industry.”

ZeaKal will be conducting the development in partnership with the University of Missouri at the laboratories of Henry Nguyen, Ph.D., and Zhanyuan Zhang, Ph.D.