- Agritech startup Enko has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round backed by the Gates Foundation.
- The global crop protection market is estimated to reach a $65 billion valuation in 2023 — but increased regulation and resistance to pesticides has slowed growth.
- Enko CEO Jacqueline Heard said that "safer, lower-use-rate products that provide good returns for farmers needs to be the rule and not the exception."
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Enko, a startup trying to disrupt the crop protection industry, has raised $45 million in a Series B funding round led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Massachusetts-based Enko, founded in 2017, combines artificial intelligence with a "DNA library" of potential products to rapidly develop new chemicals.
The latest funding round, led by the Gates Foundation, was also backed by Anterra Capital, Finistere Ventures, and Novalis LifeSciences.
The global crop protection market will reach an estimated $65 billion valuation in 2023, according to Research and Markets, but growth has been stalled by rising regulatory standards, higher performance requirements, and increasing resistance to pesticides.
Enko CEO and founder Jacqueline Heard said the industry has been "slow to innovate."
"Delivering safer, lower use rate products that provide good returns for farmers needs to be the rule and not the exception," she said.
Dr Vipula Shukla, a senior executive at the Gates Foundation, said Enko's work would benefit farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
"Smallholder farmers are the backbone of the agricultural economy in these regions, so working with innovative companies like Enko Chem to equip them with better ways to fight these threats is crucial to building their resilience to climate impacts on food and feed production," she said.
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