A little more than three years after raising an $8.5m Series A, San Jose-based Crop Enhancement has raised an $8 million Series B. The round brings new partners to the table including Spruce Capital and Xeraya Capital, which led the round, Davinia Investments, and Alexandria Ventures. Existing investors 1955 Capital, Phoenix Venture Partners, and Wilbur Ellis’ Cavallo Ventures also re-upped their investments.
“What makes Crop Enhancement distinctive is the elegance of the solution and wide application across multiple crop types. They’re the first company that 1955 Capital has seen with true potential to solve the holy grail problem of protecting and boosting crop yield—by as high as 20-30% in some trials—while reducing the need for synthetic pesticides or pesticide applications,” Andrew Chung, founder and managing partner of 1955 Capital wrote to AFN via email. “Conventional chemical inputs are facing extreme regulatory pressure and it is only a matter of time before safer, softer approaches like Crop Enhancement’s become the norm.”