Advising on Tropic Biosciences' US$105 million Series C financing

We have advised a syndicate of investors, including lead investors Forbion Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva, on the oversubscribed Series C financing of Tropic Biosciences to scale commercial rollout of gene-edited tropical crops.

Tropic Biosciences (Tropic) is a tropical seeds company dedicated to the development of healthier, more robust, high-performing varieties of staple crops. The round was co-led by Forbion through its Planetary Health Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva, through its Corteva Catalyst investment platform, with significant participation from Just Climate and IQ Capital. The round was also supported by new investors ABN Amro and Invest International, and existing investors Temasek, Five Seasons Ventures, Sucden Ventures, Genoa Ventures and Polaris Partners who participated in the round.

With demand for its initial commercial products rapidly outpacing supply, Tropic will use the Series C capital to expand large scale plant production capabilities, strengthen global supply chains, and support commercial partnerships across major export markets.

The funding will also accelerate Tropic’s pipeline of banana varieties, developed for natural resistance to devastating diseases such as TR4 and Black Sigatoka, and expand development across its rice portfolio, and support entry into additional high-impact crops to conquer global food supply challenges.

The team consisted of Ross McNaughton (Partner), Oli Denne (Senior Associate) and Clover May (Associate) from the Corporate team. Adrian Toutoungi (Partner) and Alice Matthews (Associate) supported on the IP aspects of the transaction.