REG - Agronomics Limited - ANIC invests in Wild Microbes US$3.3m Financing

AgronomicsAnnouncement

23/02/2023 08:00

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RNS Number : 7525Q  Agronomics Limited  23 February 2023

23 February 2023

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Agronomics invests in Wild Microbes US$3.3 Million Pre-Seed Financing Round

Agronomics (ANIC:LSE), the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that the Company has invested US$
0.5 million in the form of a Simple Agreement for Future Equity ("SAFE"), in
Wild Microbes Company ("Wild Microbes"), as part of Wild Microbes' US$ 3.3
million Pre-seed financing. The subscription was paid using cash from the
Company's own resources.

Wild Microbes' proprietary technology will allow it to genetically engineer
novel microbial strains for use as host-organisms to produce proteins and
other high value molecules. Currently, the majority of precision fermentation
companies rely on a small handful of microorganisms to produce proteins. Wild
Microbes have the tools that it expects can be used to generate a catalogue of
superior microorganisms which can vastly improve production efficiency for the
entire industry and bring down costs.

The SAFE is expected to convert into preferred shares in Wild Microbes at a
future equity financing round, giving Agronomics an approximate equity
ownership of 4.17% on a fully diluted basis, and accounts for approximately
0.3% of the last published Net Asset Value of Agronomics (31 December 2022).

The full announcement is set out below without any material changes:

Wild Microbes Announces Successful US$3.3 Million Pre-Seed Financing Round

Wild Microbes, a company developing next-generation microbes for
biomanufacturing, announced today an oversubscribed $3.3 million pre-seed
financing round. The company is building the largest catalog of diverse,
industrial microbes in the sector using their high-throughput engineering
technology. Wild Microbes's scalable platform targets new microbes with unique
traits and then rapidly domesticates them and develops them for the
manufacturing of sustainable products.

 

The company's initial focus is on new microbes for protein manufacturing.
Proteins are used in industries like food, cleaning products, and cosmetics.
The production of proteins by microbial fermentation is already a large
industry, and its continued growth has the potential to deliver a large and
positive impact on the environment. With their technology, Wild Microbes seeks
to reduce the cost of existing protein manufacturing processes and reduce the
cost, time and risk of bringing new protein products to market.

 

Beyond proteins, Wild Microbes is exploring new categories ranging from
sustainable chemicals to renewable feedstock usage. "The precision
fermentation industry relies on a small handful of microbes to make almost
every product" said Ben Kramer, cofounder of Wild Microbes. "Meanwhile in
nature there are countless microbial species we can harness to make better,
cheaper products. We are drawing on billions of years of evolution; nature
already did the hard part."

 

"We are thrilled to have the support of an outstanding group of investors as
we launch Wild Microbes, with a new vision for biomanufacturing," said Tim
Wannier, cofounder of Wild Microbes. "This financing round will allow us to
begin the development of our microbial engine, and to identify the first
specific use cases for our growing strain catalog."

 

Wild Microbes's round was led by Climate Capital Bio, with participation from
Freeflow, Agronomics, and Fall Line Capital. Tim and Ben first met as a part
of Nucleate's Activator program and in addition to support through Nucleate,
this round also included support from the Activate Fellowship, Third
Derivative, Alpine Social Ventures, and a small group of Angel investors.

 

About Wild Microbes

Wild Microbes is a synthetic biology company developing a catalog of new
biomanufacturing hosts. The company's best-in-class genetic toolkit and
innovative approach to engineering are set to change the fermentation
industry. New microbial species will power a transition to better economics
and allow the industry to deliver more bio-products to consumers. For more
information, visit www.wildmicrobes.com.

 

About Agronomics

Agronomics is a leading listed alternative proteins company with a focus on
cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. The Company has established a
portfolio of over 20 companies in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to
secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible
intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with
a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are
driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve
sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and
environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the
environment and animals and be fundamental to feeding the world's expanding
population. A full list of Agronomics' portfolio companies is available at
https://agronomics.im/.

 

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from
cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter or growing crops. This
encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and
fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology,
synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.

 

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally
derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have
already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of
plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even
bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists' claims that if we
maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet
the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃.

 

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market
share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's
estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to
produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we
are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing
facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however, still, less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide since the
industry's inception in 2016.

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014, as it forms part
of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now
considered to be in the public domain.

For further information please contact:

 

 Agronomics                                       Beaumont              Canaccord Genuity Limited        Cenkos                Peterhouse Capital    TB Cardew

 Limited                                          Cornish Limited                                        Securities Plc        Limited
 The Company                                      Nomad                 Joint Broker                     Joint Broker          Joint Broker          Public Relations
 Richard Reed                                     Roland Cornish        Andrew Potts                     Giles Balleny         Lucy Williams         Ed Orlebar

 Denham Eke                                       James Biddle          Harry Rees                       Michael Johnson       Charles Goodfellow    Alistair Walker

                                                                        Alex Aylen (Head of Equities)
 +44 (0) 1624 639396                              +44 (0) 207 628 3396  +44 (0) 207 523 8000             +44 (0) 207 397 8900  +44 (0) 207 469 0936  +44 (0) 20 7930 0777

 info@agronomics.im (mailto:info@agronomics.im)                                                                                                      +44 (0) 7738 724 630

                                                                                                                                                     agronomics@tbcardew.com (mailto:agronomics@tbcardew.com)

 

 

 

 

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