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DSM: Modeling the Path to Nature-Positive Agriculture
Feeding a growing population of more than 8 billion while navigating a changing climate is arguably the greatest challenge of the global community. Net-zero pledges are not enough; we also need net-positive companies working to replenish the world.
Their Stories, Unedited: Spotlighting Inari Women’s Voices and Contributions Around Women’s History Month
This month, we commemorate women and their innumerable contributions to history and society with the celebration of Women’s History Month throughout March and International Women’s Day (3/8).
DSM: Modeling the Path to Nature-Positive Agriculture
Feeding a growing population of more than 8 billion while navigating a changing climate is arguably the greatest challenge of the global community. Net-zero pledges are not enough; we also need net-positive companies working to replenish the world.
The Hill: This Thanksgiving highlights the need for agriculture innovation
Even as many people prepare to spend a day with family and friends reflecting on our blessings over a bountiful table, avoiding thoughts of our global food system’s compounding challenges is becoming increasingly difficult. But most days we experience a growing sense of optimism as opportunities to have a meaningful impact abound, especially in agriculture.
Financial Times: Mood in Europe shifts on gene-edited crops
Inari, a US agritech company set up in 2016, has been working on gene editing to increase yields on wheat, corn and soyabeans as well as reducing the necessary water and nitrogen fertiliser. Its chief executive Ponsi Trivisvavet, who oversaw a recent $124mn late-stage investment round, describes gene editing as a “super powerful technology.”
Multiplex Gene Editing Matters – for the Population, the Planet and the People Who Grow Our Food
There is no silver bullet to solve the climate crisis. However, the recent confluence of major technological advances offers society a unique opportunity to take a major leap forward in improving the resilience and sustainability of our global food system. This change starts with seed — seed that requires fewer natural resources while continuing to produce enough food and feed.
Unlocking seed potential for greater yield with fewer resources
Now in its third edition, the Credit Suisse Cleantech Innovation Whitepaper focuses on innovative companies and industries that are accelerating technology and infrastructure to tackle climate change. For the latest report, CFO Stuart Brown sat down to discuss how Inari is using nature-positive design to create seeds that serve the population, the planet, and the people who grow our food.
Inari Raises $124 Million to Design Seeds for a More Sustainable Food System
Inari today announced that it secured $124 million in the successful completion of its latest fundraise. Working to deliver nature-positive solutions, the SEEDesign™ company’s cumulative equity raised now totals $475 million.
Agtech Startup Inari Nabs New Funding at $1.5 Billion Valuation
Seed technology startup Inari has reached $1.5 billion valuation after raising $124 million in fresh financing. Company makes seeds to withstand climate-change impacts. Gene-edited corn, soy seeds use less land, nutrients, CEO says.
Five Perspectives on 10 Years of CRISPR
What we do at Inari would not be possible without CRISPR. Our SEEDesign™ platform with our efforts to bring nature-positive outcomes to the global food system literally demands it. To help us reflect on this momentous anniversary, we asked some of our colleagues who regularly use CRISPR to convey what the technology has meant in its first 10 years – and where it could take us next. Here’s what they had to say.
Inari Board of Directors Welcomes Solange Bullukian, Longtime Executive Finance Leader
Inari, the SEEDesign™ company, has appointed longtime executive finance and accounting leader Solange Bullukian to its board of directors.
In a career that has spanned both Fortune 500 and startup companies, Bullukian has extensive experience in the life sciences, technology, and computing industries.
New York Times: Learning to Rewrite the Code of Life
The same technology that allows medical researchers to tinker with human cells is letting agricultural scientists alter crop genes. When the first wave of CRISPR studies came out, Catherine Feuillet, an expert on wheat, who was then at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, immediately saw its potential for her own work… At Inari Agriculture, a company in Cambridge, Dr. Feuillet is overseeing efforts to use CRISPR to make breeds of soybeans and other crops that use less water and fertilizer.
Purdue Research Foundation: Spotlight on Inari Agriculture
Inari is the SEEDesign™ company, combining artificial intelligence-powered predictive design and multiplex gene editing to unlock the full potential of seed. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company opened its second U.S. location in November 2018 at the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette, where it has offices, greenhouse space and a farm. It also has operations in Ghent, Belgium.
From Pharma to Farm: Can CRISPR Feed the World?
Now in its second decade, CRISPR genome editing technology is being used to revolutionize agriculture—just in time to help us adapt to climate change.
3 steps to identify the most impactful companies to invest in
If you want to support impactful businesses—ones that operate with sound social and environmental policies—you just have to know where to look.
Earth Day 2022: Charting the course to a resilient food system with dynamic systems modeling
Earth Day 2022’s theme — ‘invest in our planet’ — stands as a stark reminder that our economic security is entirely dependent on the health of our natural world. Earth Day demands that we ask: “What is the real bottom line?”
Plotting a Path to a Nature-Positive Food System
Happy National Agriculture Week! This and every week, I celebrate the essential workers that steward our farmland and bring food to the worldwide table. Raised on a small family farm, I understand the unrelenting and rewarding responsibility that caring for land and animals brings. A responsibility that hangs heavier as climate change challenges mount. We […]
Patents Aim To Boost Corn And Soy Performance By Editing GMO Traits
This month, ag biotech firm Inari Agriculture announced it was awarded two U.S. patents for proprietary methods of editing the genome of corn and soybean seeds previously genetically modified by other companies to enhance insect protection for the corn and weed management for the soy plants.
Expansion Into Wheat Continues a Personal Journey
This week marked yet another exciting development in Inari’s progress toward helping to transform the global food system by deploying our SEEDesign™ technology platform in major crops, as we announced a key partnership with leading Australian cereal seed company InterGrain. But this news is also particularly inspiring to me on a personal level.
InterGrain and Inari Launch Collaboration to Deliver Step-Change in Wheat Yield Potential
Inari, the SEEDesign™ company, and InterGrain, a leading cereal breeding company in Australia, today announced a strategic collaboration to dramatically improve the yield potential of wheat, enhancing the crop’s long-term viability in the face of an increasingly variable climate.
Inari to Bring Growers Proprietary GM Traits in Tandem with Novel Gene Edits
By using its proprietary gene editing technology, Inari has created a unique opportunity to deliver proven GM traits in combination with novel gene edits to plants’ natural DNA — unlocking the full potential of seeds for growers and the environment.
How Diversity is Driving Breakthrough Technology
Our mission at Inari – to help build a sustainable food system – is ambitious. But, we don’t lack confidence in our ability to complete it because as an organization, we’re relying on one of nature’s oldest and most effective strategies: diversity.
Inari Collaboration with Eden Enterprise Expands Access to Corn Genetics
Inari, the SEEDesignTM company, announced a strategic collaboration with Eden Enterprise, Inc. that enables access to Stine’s elite corn breeding program in order to further advance the development of unique and competitive products.
Inari Further Invests in Predictive Design Capabilities with Hiring of Chief Information and Data Officer
Enhancing efforts to effect sustainable improvements through the deep understanding of plants’ complex biological code, Inari – the SEEDesign™ company – has welcomed Dr. Rania Khalaf to its leadership team as its first chief information and data officer.
The Journey to the UN Food System Summit
As the world prepares for the first UN Food System Summit, the saying about the journey being more important than the destination rings true. So many people across the globe have participated in an incredible journey to prepare for this moment — I am humbled and honored to be one of them. And while I look forward to hearing from various leaders at the summit, what really matters is the work that got us here and what happens next.
Being Bold and Innovative with our Scientific Strategy Board
The winner of the gene editing race will not be the company that has the best tool, but the one that builds a complete toolbox combined with the knowledge of what to edit and how to make the edit. So, at Inari, we pull together some of the brightest minds in modern science — from our own team, to customers and collaborators, to academic partners and advisors — to help ignite new ideas and challenge existing ones.
Major plant breeding investments continue
“Moneyball” was a popular movie released in 2011 that revealed how baseball teams relied on numbers and analytics to decide which players to keep. You could make the case that a decade later, corn breeding is following a similar path at an increasing rate.
Inari Selected for World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community
Inari, the SEEDesign™ company, has been invited by the World Economic Forum to join its Global Innovators Community — a group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of ethical technological and business model innovation. The World Economic Forum provides the Global Innovators Community with a platform to engage with public- and private-sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome current crises and build future resiliency.
Gov. Holcomb visits West Lafayette to celebrate seed gene-editing company’s expansion
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb stopped in West Lafayette Wednesday to congratulate a seed gene-editing company that continues to grow in this Central Indiana soil.
Gene Editing Seeds With CRISPR Is Transforming Agricultural Biotechnology
One of the main focuses of agricultural biotechnology is to feed a hungry world in a more sustainable way. Many current farming methods are inefficient because they require large amounts of water, fertilizer and pesticides. Agricultural biotech is trying to solve these problems by starting at the seed level.
Inari Broadens Access to Soybean Genetics Through Collaboration with Mertec and MS Technologies
Inari, the SEEDesignTM company, announced a strategic collaboration with Mertec, LLC and M.S. Technologies, LLC that enables access to a genetic base from Stine’s industry-leading soybean breeding program to accelerate the development of unique and competitive products.
Inari and Beck’s Announce Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Farmer Access to Gene Editing Innovation
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., and ATLANTA, Ind. – May 18, 2021 – Inari, the SEEDesign™ company, and Beck’s, the largest family-owned, retail seed company and the third largest seed brand in the United States, have announced a business and R&D collaboration – reinforcing their respective missions to provide more diverse, sustainable and competitive choices for farmers. The combination of Inari’s novel predictive design and advanced multiplex gene […]
Flagship-founded Inari Agriculture hits unicorn status after $208M raise
Cambridge-based Inari Agriculture Inc., which has 75 employees in the Bay State, said it raised $208 million. New investors included San Francisco-based G Squared, one of the backers of Boston-based Toast Inc., and Pavilion Capital.
AgTech Startup Inari Nabs New Funding at $1.2 Billion Valuation
Inari, a startup specializing in seed technology, has reached a $1.2 billion valuation after raising $208 million in fresh financing.
Inari Raises Over $200 Million to Unlock the Full Potential of Seed
Inari announced today it has raised $208 million in the successful completion of its latest fundraise, bringing its cumulative equity raised to more than $352 million. With strong support from existing and new investors, Inari will use the funds to advance its mission to restore diversity in food by unlocking the full potential of seed to sustainably transform the global food system.
Dr. Sophie V. Vandebroek, Noted Tech Leader, Joins Inari Board of Directors
Inari, the biotech SEEDesign™ company, has appointed Dr. Sophie Vandebroek to its board of directors. Vandebroek is a seasoned C-level executive with broad technology experience, including as chief operating officer of IBM Research and chief technology officer of Xerox Corporation. She recently founded Strategic Vision Ventures, a strategic advisory firm, where she shares her expertise in developing innovative concepts from fundamental research to commercial offerings.
Unlocking the Possibilities in Seed to Transform the Global Food System
Modern agriculture is an incredible success story, with each advancement enhancing human nutrition or aiding food security. Unfortunately, success is sometimes accompanied by unintentional side effects. In its current form, our food production system demands that nearly 50% of Earth’s habitable land be put under cultivation, using more natural resources than we could ever replace and contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.
Inari Expands Board of Directors with Appointment of Bob Bechek
Inari, a biotech seed company, today announced that Bob Bechek has been appointed to its board of directors. Bechek is a partner and former worldwide managing director (CEO) and board chair of consulting firm Bain & Company. His appointment, effective Jan. 1, 2021, brings the Inari board to seven members.
These CRISPR Edited Seeds Are Planting A Sustainable Future For The Agricultural Industry
Agriculture is one of the most inefficient industries on the planet. Current industrial farming methods demand unsustainable amounts of water, fertilizer, and land. This demand will only intensify as our global population climbs towards 10 billion by 2050. To sustainably feed our world, we need a second agricultural revolution.
Inari Scientific Strategy Board Member, CRISPR-Cas Pioneer Jennifer Doudna Receives Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Inari scientific strategy board member Jennifer Doudna has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work to identify and develop CRISPR-Cas9. CRISPR is the revolutionary genome editing tool with enormous potential across agriculture and other areas of bioscience.
Gene editing: Gateway to new future of plant breeding?
Looking back over the past several decades, Ponsi Trivisvavet says genetic improvement has added less than 1% yield improvement per year for corn. She believes genetic improvement will have to occur much faster to meet expected future global demand for food and address the impact of climate change on farming.
Inari is building seeds for a changing planet
Ponsi Trivisvavet, CEO, attended the 2020 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos representing Inari as a 2019 Technology Pioneer – an exclusive group recognized for the potential to “transform their industries.”
Q&A: Catherine Feuillet, Geneticist and Molecular Biologist
In a world where women too often believe they aren’t qualified to take on a job that is challenging or at a higher level, Catherine Feuillet’s passion for pushing new frontiers, challenging herself, and building something that could benefit others has always propelled her forward.
Inari Raises $89 Million to Bring Innovative, Disruptive Technologies to Growers
Inari, the next-generation seed company, today announced the closing of its $89 million Series C financing, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $144 million. Flagship Pioneering, which founded Inari in 2016 to challenge the economic and environmental realities of modern agriculture, was joined in the funding round by Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), global Asian-based investor EDBI and Acre Venture Partners as well as other investors.
Seed Company Inari Named 2019 Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum
Inari, a company developing seeds that improve the economic and environmental realities of production agriculture, has been chosen as a 2019 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Inari partners with independent seed producers, using its unique computational and genetic toolbox to introduce high performing plant varieties that address farming challenges.
Perdue at Purdue: USDA secretary voices support for gene edited plants during recent college visit
Inari CEO Ponsi Trivisvavet was among a select group of agribusiness executives invited to meet earlier this month with USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue at the home of Purdue University President Mitch Daniels. Read on for Ponsi’s take on what was later discussed on the topic of gene editing and the secretary’s stance regarding recent advances in plant science.
Epigenetics: Fine-Tuning Seed Innovation
This month, Inari announced an exclusive patent licensing agreement for epigenetics technology through the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The license, based on discoveries by UCLA Professor Steve Jacobsen, a scientific co-founder of Inari, provides the company with a portfolio of powerful new tools that could dramatically improve field performance and confer other beneficial characteristics to crops.
Biologist’s research could lead to more resilient crops
UCLA biologist Steve Jacobsen’s research has the potential to have a significant impact on the improvement of crops.
Jacobsen, who is a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, specializes in plant epigenetics—the study of how a gene’s function can change without changes to the DNA sequence—and his research could lead to more resilient crops.
Inari Adds Powerful Plant Breeding Tools Through Exclusive License to UCLA Epigenetics Patents
Inari, a company that is revolutionizing plant breeding by tapping natural genetic diversity, announced it has secured exclusive patent licenses for epigenetics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The agreement, through UCLA’s Technology Development Group, gives Inari access to tools that will positively influence crop performance without altering a plant’s genetic code.
Inari broadens research footprint with expansion to Belgium life sciences hub
Inari, a company revolutionizing plant breeding by tapping intonatural genetic diversity, today expands its research footprint to Europe, with the opening of a laboratoryin Ghent, Belgium. The launch represents the company’s first expansion outside of the United States andprovides Inari access to advanced resources and talent in one of the world’s premier hubs for plantresearch.
Startup to innovate crop breeding
What if a seed developer could divide the time it takes to develop an improved plant by three and the cost by 10? That’s the goal of Inari, an innovative startup that has opened a new on-the-ground breeding facility at Purdue (University) Research Park as part of a major Midwest expansion. Farm Progress caught up with Mark Stowers, senior vice president of operations and products, while he was standing in new office space for the facility to talk about Inari, and its new product — the Seed Foundry.
Together, ag startups challenge the status quo
Rise to the challenge. It’s in our DNA at Inari, and it was also the theme of the Borlaug Dialogue at this year’s World Food Prize. I was thrilled to participate with fellow agriculture startup leaders, as we spoke about our roles in rising to the challenges facing agriculture today and in the future.
An obsession with wheat pays off
When we started in 2005, only a handful of enthusiasts in the room, many thought this it too complicated, too expensive and too long to achieve. This was all the more reason to persevere, plus so much was at stake. Wheat feeds 30% of the world population, and that is what matters! Now, we have a “dictionary” to understand the genome sequence of wheat, an encyclopedic listing of every element within wheat and an invaluable tool to understand how they interact to enable wheat to grow and produce the grain that is so indispensable to humanity.
Inari Secures $40 Million in Series B Funding to Expand its Development of Transformational Plant Breeding Technologies
Inari, a transformational plant breeding technology company with a mission to transform agriculture and positively impact society and the environment, announced today it has completed a $40 million Series B financing round, bringing its total funding to $55 million. Inari was founded in 2016 by Flagship Pioneering, which led and capitalized the company before spinning it out in 2018. Acre Venture Partners and Alexandria Venture Investments joined Flagship in this financing.
Flagship’s latest venture Inari raises $40m series B to “Transform plant breeding”
The company describes itself as a plant breeding technology company aiming to “transform plant breeding to significantly reduce time and cost by applying cutting-edge biological and data sciences.” The startup told AgFunderNews it will be using gene editing technology, including CRISPR Cas-9; it has CRISPR Cas-9’s inventor Jennifer Doudna on its board of directors.
Inari Agriculture Sprouts with Plans to Gene Edit “Personalized Seeds”
The seeds farmers plant in their fields can carry certain desirable traits, such as drought tolerance or pest resistance. Breeding or genetic engineering can produce such traits, but ag biotech startup Inari Agriculture aims to take trait development to a new level—customizing seeds to grow best in the soil and weather at the farm where they’ll be planted.
Creating a new horizon in agriculture. And a diverse one, as well.
We continue to question, every day, not only the existing science in Ag Tech today, but also the mindset of the industry itself: how things are done, how companies are managed and how they could be improved. What we’ve attained is a dynamic group of folks from all walks of life, from all over the world, looking for something different. They have created a unique culture that brings us to work every day with smiles on our faces and a shared purpose.
Crispr Can Speed Up Nature—and Change How We Grow Food
It took thousands of years for humans to breed a pea-sized fruit into a beautiful beefsteak tomato. Now, with gene editing, scientists can change everything.
