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Durham, N.C., Sept. 17, 2024 -- 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.
Pairwise Poised to Revolutionize Agriculture with Industry-Leading Fulcrum™ Platform following $40M Series C Funding
New Investment will Accelerate Transformative Innovation in Precision Plant Breeding, Improving Consumer Nutrition, Grower Economics, and Crop Climate Adaptation
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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
(202) 997-9438
Corteva, Pairwise Join Forces to Accelerate Gene Editing, Advance Climate Resilience in Agriculture
Corteva to invest $25 million to acquire equity stake in gene editing innovator, Pairwise.
Strategic collaboration to also form a joint venture to accelerate gene editing solutions.
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Pairwise, a food and agriculture company known for bringing the first gene-edited food to the U.S. market, and Bayer today announced a new five-year, multi-million dollar agreement focused on innovations in short-stature corn. This new program leverages Pairwise’s Fulcrum™ platform and builds on the success of the companies’ initial five-year collaboration for corn, soy, wheat, cotton, and canola.
The upcoming collaboration between Pairwise and Bayer will be focused on optimizing and enhancing gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System. Short-stature corn – with a targeted height of 30 to 40 percent less than traditional corn – is an innovative new approach to growing corn and offers a number of sustainability benefits, including protections from crop loss due to increasingly severe weather events and extreme winds brought about by climate change. Short-stature corn also allows for more precise application of inputs throughout the growing season, sustainably growing more through reduced risk of crop loss.
“Pairwise’s proprietary base editing tools allow for specific changes at virtually any location in the genome, which has the potential to make targeted and much needed improvements in agriculture,” said Bob Reiter, Head of R&D at Bayer’s Crop Science Division. "These kinds of new genomic techniques are extraordinarily focused and produce results much more quickly and precisely than the conventional breeding process, ensuring that we can accelerate the delivery of solutions that growers need."
The initial five-year collaboration focused on corn, soy, wheat, cotton and canola with the aim of empowering producers to grow more with fewer inputs on the same amount of land. The partnership, which concluded in June 2023, resulted in 27 novel traits being transferred into Bayer’s testing programs. Results of the program demonstrated significant commercial value including edited corn phenotypes with a 20 percent increase in kernel row numbers, which could lead to significantly more yield on the same number of acres. Another outcome has been edited soy that reduces the severity of Asian soybean rust, potentially reducing the need for fungicides to combat the disease and protecting the potential for higher yields.
These, and other significant achievements, were made possible through the development of custom gene editing tools by Pairwise. These include REDRAW™, or RNA encoded DNA replacement of alleles with CRISPR, a precise templated editing toolbox that can make any type of small edit at CRISPR-targeted sites. Another tool is SHARC™, a proprietary enzyme that works well for cutting, base editing, and REDRAW editing. These tools will also be used in the new collaboration focused on advancing short-stature corn.
“We look forward to continuing our work with Bayer, with new emphasis on contributing to their novel smart corn system,” added Tom Adams, Co-founder and CEO at Pairwise. “Working closely with Bayer on furthering this revolution in corn gives us the market reach to enable our technology innovations to more quickly adjust to the biggest challenge of our time: the changing climate.”
Pairwise has already demonstrated the successful use of CRISPR and other emerging technologies to accelerate the delivery of new products to markets, and recently launched its first product, Conscious™ Greens into the U.S. foodservice channel. Through the leading use of cutting-edge technologies, and due to the efficiency of the company’s Fulcrum Platform, the product was advanced from concept to commercialization in just four years. In addition, Pairwise works with other innovative companies and has licensed its IP for applications in additional crops of global importance, including licensing elements of the Fulcrum Platform to Tropic Biosciences for applications in banana and coffee.
About Bayer:
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2022, the Group employed around 101,000 people and had sales of 50.7 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 6.2 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.
Bayer Media inquiries:
Alex Hennig
+49 175 30-89736
Forward-Looking Statements: This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
Bayer Media Inquiries:
Alex Hennig
+49 175 30-89736
Bayer Investor Inquiries:
Bayer Investor Relations Team
+49 214 30-72704
Pairwise, Bayer Build On Successful Gene Editing Partnership With New Five-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Collaboration to Further Advance Short-Stature Corn
New agreement will focus on CRISPR applications for Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System.
Collaboration builds on successful initial gene-editing partnership between the two companies.
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