Monsanto leads €5.7m series A funding round

Caixa Capital Risc, Middleland Capital and Novozymes joined Monsanto to raise equity for Madrid-based PlantResponse Biotech.

Monsanto Growth Ventures has led a €5.7 million Series A funding round with Caixa Capital Risc, Middleland Capital and Danish biotech company Novozymes for Madrid-based PlantResponse Biotech.

The Spanish company, founded as a spin-off from the Technical University of Madrid in 2008, develops disease-resistant crop varieties using microbes. Its research areas include yield, plant stress and health.

PlantResponse Biotech will use the equity to develop and deploy the company’s existing products to market as well as boost financing to its research and development arm. The support, PlantResponse Biotech said, will help the company grow within Spain’s €300 million agrobiological market.

“We are glad that the technology being developed by a Spanish company is able to attract investment from such significant international players,” said Carlos Esteban, investment analyst at Caixa Capital Risc in a press release.

Caixa backed the company by drawing from Innvierte BioMed II, its €35 million fund set up to invest between €500,000 and €3 million in health-focused Spanish companies.

Middleland Capital investments include PlantResponse Biotech, Agrivida and soil-moisture sensor manufactiurer AquaSpy.