🧬 Seed gene-editing startup raises $144 million

🧬 Seed gene-editing startup Inari raised $144 million in a Series G round, bringing total funding to $720 million, to advance its AI-powered SEEDesign platform for editing plant DNA to boost yields and resource efficiency in crops like soybean, corn, and wheat.

🔍 Irish biotech startup Nuritas secured $42M Series C funding to scale its AI-powered Magnifier platform, which accelerates the discovery of plant-based peptides—short-chain amino acids that act as building blocks of proteins like collagen and elastin, with applications in food products, supplements, cosmetics, and other functional offerings.

📦 Middle Eastern meal delivery startup Calo raised $25 million Series B funding, in a round led by Nuwa Capital, to fuel its expansion into new markets and further develop its customised ready-to-eat meal offerings.

👨‍🌾 Tel Aviv-based Fermata secured a $10 million Series A round from Raw Ventures to scale operations and aim for profitability by 2026. It uses AI and computer vision to monitor greenhouse crops for pests and diseases.

🔬 Biosphere, a startup developing UV-sterilised bioreactors designed to reduce biomanufacturing costs, emerged from stealth with $8.8 million in seed funding and a $1.5 million contract with the US Department of Defense.

🧀 The EU is investing €5 million in the Delicious initiative, a four-year project to advance the protein transition by developing next-generation plant-based cheeses and kefir using precision fermentation and microbial inputs to improve taste, texture, and nutrition.

☘️ Anglo-Portuguese startup Arborea raised €5 million to scale its Biosolar Leaf platform, which industrialises photosynthesis to produce sustainable, high-value microalgae proteins while sequestering carbon and releasing oxygen.

🤖 Netherlands-based Odd.Bot raised €2 million in a pre-Series A funding round to advance its sustainable autonomous weeding robot, the Maverick, which replaces manual and chemical weeding methods to promote cleaner crops, healthier soil, and biodiversity.