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.
The Series D fundraise was co-led by company founder Flagship Pioneering and incorporated a number of existing investors, including Alexandria Venture Investments, Investment Corporation of Dubai, Banque Pictet on behalf of their clients and Rivas Capital. The round also brought in new investors, such as G Squared and Pavilion Capital.
“Today’s announcement demonstrates both the progress and incredible potential of the company. We are very pleased with the strength of our investor base, bringing in international support across new and existing investors,” said Inari CEO Ponsi Trivisvavet. “We are taking a nature positive approach to advance new possibilities with seed using predictive design and advanced multiplex gene editing. Our technology matches the complexity and diversity of nature to address the needs of the planet and society. And we have the ability to enhance any seed for any geography, making our products – and impact – globally scalable.”
The Series D enables Inari to further accelerate advancements across its science platform and product development for corn and soybeans in both North and South America. Since its founding in 2016, Inari has made significant progress in delivering scientific breakthroughs and commercial development to reach the cusp of something genuinely and globally important through its SEEDesign™ platform. By demonstrating efficacy in making multiple types of targeted edits within a single genome, Inari opens up new opportunities for exponential improvements in yield, along with water and fertilizer use efficiencies not achievable with the technology currently in the market.
“When we founded Inari, we had a simple yet bold and compelling vision to fundamentally transform the global food system through using cutting-edge science and technology to unlock the full potential of seeds,” said Robert Berendes, executive partner at Flagship Pioneering. “At the same time, we believed we could do so in a way that restores our planet, significantly broadens the options for farmers and greatly expands the biodiversity of the food that we eat. This fundraise is a testament to that initial vision becoming an imminent reality and being recognized as a leader in this nature positive work by investors.”
The Inari SEEDesign™ platform: Inari takes a two-step approach to its technology. Using predictive design to create a deep understanding of the genes through artificial intelligence, Inari builds blueprints for its industry-leading combination of gene editing tools that enable multiple edits within a single genome. These edits help create seed that increases yield while reducing the footprint of agriculture. This approach helps advance products to market in less time and with less expense than the industry norm.