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Enkhuizen, the Netherlands, and Durham, North Carolina (November 17, 2025) — Enza Zaden, a global leader in vegetable breeding that develops and supplies innovative vegetable seeds for growers worldwide, today announced a strategic agreement to license Pairwise’s Fulcrum® Platform, a suite of precision plant breeding tools.

“At Enza Zaden, our mission is to grant people everywhere access to healthy vegetables by developing high-quality varieties and seeds,” said Jaap Mazereeuw, CEO of Enza Zaden. “This collaboration reflects our commitment to breakthrough plant science and responsible innovation to benefit growers, consumers, and the environment. Pairwise’s Fulcrum® Platform equips us with advanced tools for research, strengthening our ongoing focus on sustainability and creating value for our customers.”

Enza Zaden is currently focused on evaluating gene editing for research purposes in vegetable crops. While the agreement covers both research and potential future commercialization, Enza Zaden has no immediate plans for a commercial launch. Any future commercialization will depend on regulatory developments, market readiness, and company strategy. Enza Zaden supports regulatory developments that enable responsible use of gene editing and will consider commercialization when legislation, market readiness, and company strategy are aligned.

“Enza Zaden has a long tradition of developing innovative vegetable varieties. We’re proud to support them in accelerating the natural potential of crops with cutting-edge tools," said Tom Adams, CEO of Pairwise. "Gene editing is a precise, modern breeding method that complements traditional approaches, enabling breeders to achieve results faster while addressing key challenges like sustainability and disease resistance. Gene editing represents a vital tool for advancing resilient, climate-smart crops that align with sustainable agriculture goals.”

Pairwise’s Fulcrum® Platform is becoming the preferred CRISPR toolbox across the agriculture value chain, proven to work in diverse crop types. By integrating advanced gene editing tools with a strong intellectual property portfolio, the platform enables accelerated agricultural innovation worldwide.

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About Enza Zaden

Enza Zaden is a family-owned, international vegetable-breeding company with headquarters in Enkhuizen, the Netherlands. Founded in 1938, the company develops innovative, high-quality vegetable varieties and seeds for more than 30 crops. Each year, Enza Zaden introduces around 100 new varieties that help growers worldwide produce healthy, diverse, and sustainable food. With research facilities and subsidiaries across the globe, Enza Zaden is committed to innovation, sustainability, and ensuring access to healthy vegetables for people everywhere.

Enza Zaden’s portfolio includes more than 30 vegetable crops, from lettuce and tomato to cucumber, broccoli, and onions. Branded product concepts such as Eazyleaf® multi-leaf lettuce, Tribelli® sweet peppers, easyQs® mini cucumbers, and TomAzur® blight-resistant tomatoes showcase the company’s ability to connect advanced science with practical solutions for growers and consumers. For more information, visit www.enzazaden.com.

About Pairwise

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovations that make food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Durham, NC and Los Baños, Philippines (November  4, 2025) – Pairwise has licensed its Fulcrum® gene editing platform to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a non-profit agricultural research organization. The agreement will enable IRRI to apply CRISPR technology to develop rice varieties with higher yields, greater climate resilience, and enhanced nutritional value, including research aimed at supporting healthier diets. These innovations will complement and strengthen IRRI's ongoing breeding programs.

"This partnership marks an exciting step for IRRI's breeding initiatives," said Dr. Inez Slamet-Loedin, Principal Scientist for Biotechnology. “It reinforces our commitment to using the latest breeding innovations to deliver results faster. By responsibly applying advanced tools, we can speed up the development of rice varieties that improve productivity, resilience, and nutrition for farmers and consumers around the world.”

"We're honored to partner with IRRI, a world-renowned leader in rice research, to bring our Fulcrum technology to one of humanity's most vital crops," said Ian Miller, COO of Pairwise. "This collaboration will accelerate rice innovation and create tangible benefits for farmers and consumers worldwide."

Under the agreement, IRRI will have nonexclusive rights to use the Fulcrum suite of CRISPR-based genome-editing technologies, including the SHARC™ enzyme system, for research, development, dissemination, and commercial applications in rice. The Fulcrum platform has already enabled innovations such as seedless and compact blackberries and global trait development in 14 row and specialty crops.

This is Pairwise's third licensing agreement with a CGIAR research center, following a 2025 agreement with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and a 2024partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). This agreement is backed by the CGIAR Gene Editing Initiative through the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK Government (FCDO),Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the Gates Foundation to bring these innovations to smallholder farmers across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while ensuring genome-editing technologies are used responsibly for public benefit.

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About the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

IRRI is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agri-food systems. Through its work and partnerships, IRRI aims to improve the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers; promote environmental sustainability in a world challenged by climate change; and support the empowerment of women and youth in the rice industry. IRRI is a member of CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research partnership dedicated to a food-secure future. For more information, visit https://www.irri.org/.

About Pairwise

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and non profit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Pairwise is one of a select group of companies recognized this year for using biotechnology to address the challenges of a warming world. The feature highlights our pipeline of gene-edited crops, including short-stature corn and blackberries, designed to thrive under increasingly harsh conditions, and our partnerships with Bayer and Corteva to scale climate-resilient traits across agriculture.

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Sun World International and Pairwise today announced the formation of a joint venture to collaborate in specialty fruit, beginning with the development of a pitless cherry.  Sun World will have exclusive commercial rights to these genetics as they seek a first-to-market position in high-quality pitless cherries. The partnership leverages Sun World’s fruit breeding and licensing expertise with Pairwise’s Fulcrum® platform. As part of the agreement, Sun World will make strategic investments to fund development.

In addition to maximizing yield and mitigating against climate change, one of Sun World’s north stars is providing a demonstrably superior consumer eating experience in every way including optimizing convenience. Sun World has a rich heritage of pioneering convenience-focused innovations, beginning with the SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® table grape in 1972, the Sun World seedless watermelon in 1988, countless contributions to their seedless table grape range over three decades, the commercialization of seedlessness in easy-peel mandarins, and the introduction of the seedless lemon.

“Our focus has long been on offering truly differentiated genetics to our growers with exceptional new traits, flavors, texture and convenience,” said Bernardo Calvo, Sun World’s CEO. “Developing a high-quality pitless cherry is a natural innovation evolution for us and in Pairwise, we’ve found an extraordinary partner already well down this quite complex path.”

Pairwise, which has developed the world's first seedless blackberry, brings an unmatched platform that accelerates the development of in-demand crop traits. Traditional breeding involves a lengthy process, but this approach creates a faster path to fruits that consumers will enjoy while providing growers with crops that offer greater sustainability, improved disease resistance, and higher yields.

"This is a segment of agriculture where there's tremendous opportunity to bring meaningful innovation," said Dr. Tom Adams, CEO of Pairwise. "Sun World has built one of the most successful commercial pipelines in fruit genetics.  Combining that expertise with the precision and efficiency of Pairwise’s Fulcrum platform allows us to address unmet consumer and grower needs in a way that hasn't been possible before."

Pairwise will lead the R&D effort, while Sun World contributes its germplasm, breeding infrastructure, and commercial market access. The joint venture is already advancing development work and may explore additional strategic partnerships. In addition to its focus on consumer traits, the collaboration aligns with broader industry efforts to use advanced plant breeding to support sustainable agriculture, reduce waste, and create higher-value outcomes for both consumers and producers.

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About Sun World  

Sun World International is a global fruit variety development and licensing company, propelled by emerging technologies, and rooted since its inception in the principles of sustainability. Sun World pioneered seedless grape varietal development and formalized their fruit genetics program three decades ago. Sun World specializes in table grapes, mandarins, mangoes, stone fruit and cherries and is part of the Bridgepoint Group of private equity investors. www.sun-world.com.  

About Pairwise

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Mars, Incorporated has licensed Pairwise's Fulcrum® gene editing tools for cacao research and development. This licensing agreement grants Mars access to Pairwise's CRISPR tools, including the SHARC™ enzyme. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ platform encompasses gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential. This capability significantly accelerates the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods, allowing for the activation or deactivation of characteristics and fine-tuning traits, much like adjusting a dimmer switch to achieve optimal results.  

Mars aims to develop this advanced plant breeding technology to improve cacao production and effectively tackle agricultural challenges. The ultimate goal is to help address the pressures cacao faces globally from climate variability, plant diseases and environmental stresses. This strategic initiative underscores the potential of this technology to drive meaningful advancements in agriculture.  

"At Mars, we believe CRISPR has the potential to improve crops in ways that support and strengthen global supply chains," said Carl Jones, Plant Sciences Director at Mars. "Our focus is to transparently and responsibly conduct CRISPR research in plant science that helps crops better adapt to climate challenges, disease pressures and resource constraints."  

"We're pleased to provide Mars with access to our Fulcrum™ platform for their cacao research and development initiatives," said Ian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Pairwise. "Plant breeding innovation has the potential to help address important agricultural challenges, and we look forward to supporting Mars' research goals."  

The Pairwise Fulcrum® platform includes gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential to greatly accelerate the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods.
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About Pairwise  

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum™ Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Pairwise has entered a landmark licensing agreement with the non-profit, international agricultural research organization CIMMYT to provide access to its Fulcrum™ gene editing platform, including the advanced SHARC™ CRISPR enzyme. This partnership will accelerate the development of improved crop varieties for smallholder farmers across 20 countries where CIMMYT implements integrated research and development initiatives.

CIMMYT, based in Mexico and operating in 88 countries, is a key member of the CGIAR network and a global leader in developing sustainable solutions for food and climate security. Under the license, CIMMYT and its National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) partners will have access to Fulcrum tools in crops including maize, wheat, sorghum, and regionally important staples like pearl millet, finger millet, pigeon pea, and groundnut.

“Advanced breeding techniques replicate what happens in nature in a faster, more focused way. We’re excited to have access to a gene editing technology that allows us to not only develop new traits but also make these traits available to farmers who can benefit from them,” said Sarah Hearne, Chief Science and Innovation Officer at CIMMYT. “CIMMYT is committed to bringing new technologies to smallholder farmers in the Global South, which aims to enhance resilience and nutritional characteristics of crops and help develop livelihoods and communities. Fulcrum will speed up the delivery of the climate resilient varieties that farmers urgently need.”

The Fulcrum™ Platform includes Pairwise-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing a toolbox which enables not only turning a characteristic on or off but also tuning it — like a dimmer switch to tailor the trait and deliver the optimum phenotype.

“Our Fulcrum Platform was built to help scientists solve urgent, real-world challenges in agriculture,” said Ian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Pairwise. “This agreement allows CIMMYT to use our powerful CRISPR tools to deliver real-world improvements for farmers facing food insecurity and climate pressure. We outlicense to organizations like CIMMYT because Pairwise believes this transformative technology should be broadly available to those working to improve agriculture for smallholder farmers.”

Gene editing enables precision improvements in crop yield, resilience, and nutrition that could be achieved through conventional breeding but were impractical due to time and cost constraints.  By making these powerful tools more accessible, this partnership accelerates impactful innovation in regions where food system improvements are most urgently needed. Through CIMMYT’s research network, these tools will be deployed in diverse environments, providing researchers with a flexible alternative for product development and a clear pathway to real-world impact.

About Pairwise

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Pairwise is agriculture’s leading gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum™ Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow — and better to eat.

About CIMMYT

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CIMMYT is a cutting-edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow's problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries. For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in partnership with Pairwise, a US-based technology company pioneering the application of gene editing in food and agriculture, is delighted to announce a grant of US$ 3,874,356 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This grant will support the “Yam Optimized Architecture through Gene Editing (YOAGE)” project, an innovative project aimed at delivering novel genetic variation to yam (Dioscorea spp.) that improves plant architecture. The project goal is to reduce labor and environmental impact associated with traditional plant staking while also enabling mechanized farming in Nigeria, where yam is an important staple food crop.

The 4-year YOAGE project will focus on developing yam varieties with optimized growth characteristics, improving cultivation practices, and boosting productivity and profitability while collaborating with various stakeholders, including local farmers, agricultural experts, and policymakers. Yam is the second most important root and tuber crop in sub-Saharan Africa after cassava, with a production of about 75 million metric tons (FAO, 2021) and provides about 200 kilocalories daily to over 400 million people in the low-income and food-deficit countries of the tropics. Africa produces over 97% of the global yams, with Nigeria alone accounting for about 66% of the world’s total (FAO, 2021). In West Africa, particularly in Nigeria, yam is not only a staple crop but also plays a central role as a traditional flagship crop deeply intertwined with societal norms, fulfilling various social and religious functions.

Despite this importance, yam cultivation faces several challenges, such as high costs of planting materials and labor, declining soil fertility, low-yielding varieties that require staking, and increased pest and disease pressures due to intensified farming. While conventional breeding has improved yam varieties for pest resistance, adaptability, and quality, it has made limited progress in optimizing plant architecture for mechanized farming. The YOAGE project will leverage advanced gene editing tools to overcome these challenges and support global food security, particularly in the face of climate change, resource limitations, and shifting consumer demands.

Leena Tripathi, IITA Eastern Africa Hub Director, Biotechnology Program Lead, and YOAGE Principal Investigator, said: “Receiving this grant from the Gates Foundation marks a pivotal advancement in transforming yam production through innovative gene editing technologies. By developing improved bushy-types of yam varieties, we aim to reduce labor demands, enhance farming efficiency, and boost sustainability. Ultimately, our goal is to elevate farmers’ livelihoods and strengthen food security.”

The YOAGE project aims to develop these varieties by identifying the genes controlling plant growth, optimizing gene editing to develop semi-dwarf varieties, and analyzing the impacts of these changes on labor and gender dynamics. By addressing the technical and environmental challenges of yam production, the project is expected to significantly improve productivity and farmers’ income, contributing to the global goal of sustainable agriculture and food security.

The Gates Foundation selected IITA and Pairwise for the grant because of their proven records in agricultural innovations and community engagements in the region. IITA is a global center of excellence for yam breeding and a genetic improvement source of new and improved yam genotypes for major yam growers in Africa. Also, it has a long tradition and experience in the breeding and genetics of yam, a well-established yam breeding network that connects several national programs from major yam-growing areas in Africa.

Pairwise is pioneering the application of gene editing technology in food and agriculture through its Fulcrum™ Platform, the most extensively developed and validated toolbox for CRISPR application in plants. As one of the first companies in the world to commercialize gene-edited consumer food and agricultural products, Pairwise brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products.

“The Gates Foundation sees gene editing as an opportunity to more rapidly advance important crops like yam, following a path established through a long history of crop breeding. Through gene editing, we can keep all the favorable characteristics of adapted crops, such as nutrition and climate resilience, while removing characteristics like vining in yams that limit a crop’s potential. By partnering IITA with Pairwise, we have brought together top scientists to tackle this important challenge and drive adoption of improved varieties for smallholder farmers.” explained Dr Nicolas Bate, the Senior Program Officer at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Pairwise Director of Trait Strategy and Testing, Dr Shai Lawit, added: “Gene editing offers a revolutionary approach to solving global challenges in agriculture. Through important public-private initiatives like this one with IITA, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Pairwise, we are not only improving crop production; we’re also empowering smallholder farmers, reducing environmental impacts, and advancing food security to narrow the global nutritional deficit, which is especially prevalent in developing countries.”

Through this combined work, the YOAGE project will demonstrate the importance of public-private partnerships in unlocking the benefits of gene editing in Nigeria and Africa at large.

About IITA

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is a not-for-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to address Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, IITA improves livelihoods, enhances food and nutrition security, increases employment, and preserves natural resource integrity. IITA is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food and nutrition secure future.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of gene editing technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture and tech to harness transformative genomic technologies to create innovative new products that benefit society. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and large-acre crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, Temasek, and Corteva Catalyst, Pairwise raised $40 million in a successful funding round in September 2024, bringing total fundraising to $155 million. The company was co-founded by the company’s CEO Dr. Tom Adams and agriculture innovator Dr. Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

Genome editing with CRISPR and other tools is an exciting new technology with myriad applications from human health to industrial biotechnology. Gene editing allows small but precise changes in DNA sequences to turn genes on or off or modulate their activity. It is an extremely active area for investment, particularly since the announcement of the first CRISPR-based human gene therapy approval November of 2023. Editing technology also has tremendous potential for applications in agriculture and this week there was an announcement of a new partnership between a major global agriculture company, Corteva, and a genome editing company called Pairwise. This sort of development and innovation is important because the global agricultural sector faces many challenges and opportunities including:

• Feeding a growing global population without encroaching on remaining wild lands
• Growing crops in an environment that increasingly involves more heat and water stress events driven by climate change
• Striving to reduce the carbon footprint of farming while also aiding footprint reductions for other industries such as animal production, fuels and plastics
• Playing a positive role in net global carbon sequestration
• Managing new and intensified pest challenges driven by pesticide resistance and climate shifts
• Creating crops with novel consumer-oriented characteristics to enhance food enjoyment and health

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Indianapolis and Durham, N.C. (Sept 17th 2024) – Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), a global leader in agricultural technology and Pairwise, a technology company pioneering the application of gene editing in food and agriculture, announced a collaboration today to accelerate the delivery of advanced gene editing solutions to farmers, ultimately benefitting both the environment and everyday consumers. Gene editing uses a plant’s own DNA to make precise improvements, providing growers with another critical tool to keep pace with the challenges facing food production, including those presented by climate change.

Anchoring the collaboration is Corteva’s $25 million equity investment in Pairwise, made under the umbrella of Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform focused on accessing agricultural innovation to drive value creation. The investment aims to help expand the reach and benefits of gene editing to a wide variety of staple and specialty crops.

In addition, Corteva and Pairwise have formed a joint venture to accelerate and expand the delivery of advanced gene edited technologies aimed at increasing crop yield for food, fuel and fiber production, despite increasing climate change.

The joint venture, which spans five years, will leverage both companies’ advanced gene editing capabilities to accelerate the pace of gene edited products by generating and evaluating unique gene edits across multiple traits in a range of crops. Building on Corteva’s longstanding leadership in plant breeding and genetics, the companies will collaborate on the development and deployment of gene edited products that are more resilient to extreme weather events and climate change.

“Gene editing is a transformational technology for agriculture that will advance climate resilience in food production and drive the increased farm productivity required to effectively feed and fuel the world’s growing population,” said Sam Eathington, Corteva’s chief technology and digital officer. “As a gene editing technology leader ourselves, we are proud to work with Pairwise to accelerate the benefits of gene editing not only to farmers, but ultimately to those who rely on the availability of sustainably grown and affordable food – and that’s all of us.”

“Gene editing is poised to revolutionize agriculture, enabling the cultivation of crops that are more adaptive to climate change, are more nutritious and convenient for consumers, and deliver greater economics for growers,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “Through our Fulcrum™ Platform, we’re proud to be at the helm of applying this transformative technology in agriculture and, alongside partners like Corteva, accelerate the realization of these benefits across global stakeholders.”

Pairwise is a leader in using gene editing to make differentiated crops. Last year, the company launched the first CRISPR food in North America, and has multiple products in development across significant crops, including corn, soy, wheat, canola, blackberries, and more. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform includes proprietary gene editing tools that provide the ability to not only turn a characteristic on or off but also, with base editing and related technologies, “tune” it to find it’s sweet spot for highest performance. Pairwise’s novel editing tools allow scientists to precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding alone.

This is the first joint venture and major equity investment in gene editing made by Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform. The investment reflects Corteva’s nearly century-long track record (through its Pioneer brand) of championing innovation through partnerships, including with the global scientific community.

‍About Corteva:

Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA) is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry- leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and a technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to maximizing productivity for farmers, while working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.

Media Contacts: 

Corteva:

Bethany Shively

Bethany.shively@corteva.com

(202) 997-9438

Pairwise, a technology company pioneering gene editing to improve plant breeding in specialty and commodity crops, has closed a $40M Series C funding round led by Deerfield Management. Multiple returning investors, including Aliment Capital and Leaps by Bayer, are joined by new investor and global ag technology leader Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), through its Corteva Catalyst platform, further signaling the promise and anticipated benefits of gene editing in agricultural applications.

Delivering Transformative Improvements in Food and Agriculture

Investments from this funding round will be used to scale Pairwise’s innovative product pipeline, including seedless berries and pitless cherries, as well as advance its industry-leading Fulcrum™ Platform. Pairwise’s new seedless blackberry variety, announced in June, will deliver an improved eating experience for consumers and, in concert with compact architecture and thornless traits, bring added benefits to farm workers, growers, and the environment as well.

“We started Pairwise in the early days of CRISPR to accelerate innovation across agriculture, enabling the cultivation of crops that are more adaptive to climate change, and more nutritious and convenient for consumers, all while bolstering grower economics,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “This new investment will enable us to expand the impact of our proprietary Fulcrum Platform as we continue to lead this transformation with our proven ability to deliver novel solutions that address the most pressing challenges in agriculture today.”

“Using their novel tools, Pairwise has delivered game-changing edits in plant varieties across consumer and big-acre crops in just a few short years,” said Cam Wheeler, Partner at Deerfield Management and Pairwise Chairman of the Board. “We believe that the precision, speed, and safety of gene editing is poised to transform agriculture, and our ongoing investment reflects our confidence in Pairwise as the clear leader in this space.”

Corteva Chief Technology and Digital Officer Sam Eathington said, “We view gene editing as a critical solution to drive climate resilience across agriculture and global food systems. Pairwise is an obvious choice for our investment to help accelerate innovation through gene editing in fruit, vegetables, and specialty crops. And as leaders in gene editing ourselves, Corteva’s ultimate aim is to work with Pairwise to unlock the impact of this technology to help solve climate challenges and produce the food, fiber and fuel required to meet the needs of a growing global population.”

In parallel to Corteva’s equity investment in Pairwise, the two companies have entered into a five-year joint venture collaboration that will focus on accelerating the pace of gene edited technologies and developing improved products that are more resilient to future climate conditions.

Corteva’s investment in Pairwise is being made through Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform launched to boost agricultural R&D and sustainable food production innovations.  

Trailblazing a New Era in Accelerated Innovation

Pairwise was founded by proven business leaders, preeminent experts, and inventors of early gene-editing technologies. Using industry-leading knowledge of plant genetics, a broad suite of CRISPR tools, and high-impact editing techniques like multiplexing, Pairwise has delivered multiple products with differentiated plant genetics across significant crops, including corn, soy, wheat, canola, leafy greens, blackberries, and more. As one of the only companies in this space to launch commercially viable products to date, Pairwise introduced the first CRISPR food to North America – a blend of superfood mustard greens that eat like lettuce, edited to dial down the wasabi-like pungency for people looking for healthier salad options than what are available in the marketplace today.  After laying the important commercial groundwork, the company entered into an exclusive product licensing agreement with Bayer to further develop and sell 10 varieties of Pairwise-edited greens at scale, and to develop and breed for new varieties with the technology. Additionally, after delivering 27 novel traits to Bayer’s pipeline under an initial five-year partnership, the two companies entered a second, multi-year collaboration to focus on developing a gene-edited version of short-stature corn to offer farmers better protection for their crops given improved sustainability in high winds and challenging weather conditions, better access during the season, and higher yields.

The Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform includes company-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing – a toolbox that enables not only turning a characteristic on or off, like removing a plant’s thorns to enable easier fruit harvesting, but also “tuning” it – like a dimmer switch to dial a trait up or down, such as creating a new type of corn with up to 20% more kernel rows. Using Pairwise’s novel editing tools, scientists can precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding. In concert with its industry-leading tools, Pairwise’s intellectual property enables a straightforward path to product commercialization.

"Our technology licensing agreements provide secured IP and increase shareholder value. And our proprietary suite of technologies – our Fulcrum Platform – is enabling us to unlock transformative improvements in global agriculture,” added Adams. “Our product-development partnerships with global agriculture leaders, Corteva and Bayer, underscored by investments from both Corteva Catalyst and Leaps by Bayer, are an incredible validation of our technology and an important signal that gene editing will play a major role in improving agriculture innovation moving forward.”

Institutions interested in learning about Pairwise investment or licensing opportunities may contact the company at www.Pairwise.com.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of gene editing technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture and tech to harness transformative genomic technologies to create innovative new products that benefit society. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and large-acre crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, Temasek, and Corteva Catalyst, Pairwise raised $40 million in a successful funding round in September 2024, bringing total fundraising to $155 million. The company was co-founded by the company’s CEO Dr. Tom Adams and agriculture innovator Dr. Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

Pairwise, a company pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture, has granted a full technology license to its proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform to Solis Agrosciences. Through this license, Solis will be using Pairwise’s tools to drive innovative solutions to their clients’ global food and climate challenges.

Licensees of the Fulcrum Platform can receive access to Pairwise’s full suite of novel technologies and proprietary tools for applying CRISPR to research, develop, and commercialize products with differentiated plant genetics.

Solis provides robust product design and R&D services to many different plant science clients, offering access to technologies that accelerate scientific breakthroughs and the path to commercialization. Solis will first leverage the Fulcrum Platform to develop new traits. Once a product is ready to move from the R&D stage to commercialization, Solis’ clients can obtain a commercial license through Pairwise to take their products to market.

“Our experienced team utilizes advanced technology platforms to reduce our clients’ product development timelines in traditional row crops as well as specialty crops,” said Susan Martino-Catt, Solis Chief Operating Officer. “Pairwise is pioneering CRISPR in agriculture, and bringing new, advanced solutions to the marketplace. Their Fulcrum Platform can improve R&D efficiency and provides a streamlined commercial pathway for our clients’ products. We are excited to use the Fulcrum Platform to support our current clients and also to engage with a new set of clients, helping them to advance their product pipelines.”

“CRISPR has the potential to transform agriculture and provide enormous benefits to consumers, growers, and the environment,” said Ian Miller, Pairwise Chief Development Officer. “Pairwise’s novel tools and commercial rights have been used to create and deliver new products across many crops, including corn, wheat, soy, canola, bananas, coffee, berries, and cherries. In addition to the products we’ve created, we’re excited to now empower other organizations – like Solis and, by extension, their clients – to develop their own CRISPR-edited products that will deliver the enormous potential of the technology.”

The Fulcrum Platform includes Pairwise-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing – a toolbox which enables not only turning a characteristic on or off, but also tuning it – like a dimmer switch to dial a trait up or down, such as creating a new type of corn with up to 20% more kernel rows.

Important technologies which enable the Fulcrum Platform include Pairwise’s novel SHARC™, base editing, and the REDRAW™ templated editing system.

• SHARC is a proprietary enzyme that works well for cutting, base editing, and REDRAW editing, and is the foundation for a proprietary and comprehensive genome editing toolbox.
• Pairwise’s proprietary base editing and diversification tools enable innovators to “tune” CRISPR edits with great precision. Alongside REDRAW, Pairwise’s templated editing solution, these tools allow access to a wide range of genetic variation, which is key to creating new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than conventional breeding.

“We look forward to the team at Solis using our Fulcrum Platform to accelerate their clients’ product research and working with those clients on licensing commercial rights in the future,” said Miller.

Whether through licensing, collaborations, or in-house product development, scientists leverage Pairwise’s leading CRISPR tools, IP, and full Fulcrum Platform for applications in crops of global importance, including climate-friendly short corn, bananas and coffee, blackberries, leafy greens, and more.

Learn more about licensing the Fulcrum Platform, as well as opportunities to develop new products through a collaborative partnership with Pairwise, here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

About Solis Agrosciences:

Solis Agrosciences is the trusted partner for high-quality AgTech research services. We generate gene-edited and transgenic crops, plant phenotype and efficacy data, and individually tailored research solutions for our startup and corporate customers. Solis’ highly trained and industry-experienced scientists operate in state-of-the-art facilities in the 39 North Ag Biotech district of St. Louis, Missouri. To partner with Solis, visit SolisAgrosciences.com.

Pairwise, a company pioneering genetics-based innovation in food and agriculture, has developed the world’s first seedless blackberry. Created using the company’s proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform, a complete suite of novel tools for CRISPR application in plants, this is the first time seedlessness has been achieved in any caneberry.

“We are thrilled to share this breakthrough achievement from our talented R&D team. Pairwise scientists have used their deep knowledge of plant genetics, broad suite of CRISPR tools, and multiplex editing techniques to eliminate the hard pits in berry fruit, creating soft, small seeds like those found in grapes and watermelon that are commonly labeled as seedless,” said Ryan Bartlett, Pairwise Chief Technology Officer. “The result is the first seedless blackberry in the world. We expect that this trait will not only transform the blackberry market, but it also lays the groundwork for accelerated progress in removing seeds and pits in many other fruits such as cherries.”

Recent innovations in produce have been rapidly adopted due to the significant benefits they provide consumers, such as improved flavor, consistency, and convenience.  

“The berry variety we edited is consistently sweet year-round and holds up well during shipment; now, consumers will have the option to choose a nutritious blackberry without seeds that also reliably delivers great flavor and quality,” said Haven Baker, Pairwise Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. “Blackberries are a snackable fruit with significant health benefits; however, data indicates that more than 30% of berry buyers do not like the seeds, and many more do not even buy the fruit because of the seeds.”

In addition to creating the first seedless caneberry, Pairwise has successfully edited the same variety to eliminate thorns and create a more compact plant that delivers benefits for harvesters, growers, and the environment. The thornless and compact traits enable more efficient fruit harvesting and improved productivity and profitability for growers. The new compact trait means the plants are smaller and can be planted at a higher density per acre.

With the precision of CRISPR, we’re able to develop these thornless and compact traits without sacrificing consistency in flavor and quality for consumers,” said Baker. “We’re excited to advance these berries into the next phase of product development, including outdoor field trials, as we work toward scaling up and making them available to the public in a few years.”

“A key challenge in our food system is helping people eat more high-quality, healthy foods. As part of our drive to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables, we’re working to provide consumers with new, highly nutritious food options with improved flavor and convenience,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “With a deep understanding of the plant genome, an accurate, efficient, and scalable process, and streamlined pathway to commercialization, we are not only creating new products with our proprietary CRISPR technology, we are creating a new era of innovation in agriculture.”

Learn more about Pairwise and its proven Fulcrum Platform here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.