Plant genetics company raises $4.25m in debt

Cibus Global has a platform for advanced non-transgenic breeding of plants.

Cibus Global, a Californian plant genetics company, raised $4.25 million in debt financing, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

A plant and microbial platform developer for advanced non-transgenic breeding, Cibus raised its full target amount, taking its total capital raise, across both equity and debt, to $13.5 million since February 2010, SEC filings show.

The company’s proprietary technology, the Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS), enables site-specific edits of native genes with no introduction of foreign DNA to help make crop plants more flexible, according to its website.

Cibus acquired Nucelis, a bio-technology company built on a platform of patented technology for optimizing cell structure and function, in early 2014 to “consolidate the innovative capabilities of the RTDS technology under a single entity,” said Cibus chief executive and president, Keith Walker, in a statement. “The RTDS technology has achieved significant advancements, and the company is now poised to make meaningful progress with agricultural, biomedical and industrial traits.”

Cibus did not respond to requests for comment when Agri Investor went to press.