Queensland biotech startup NexGen Plants bags $3 million to take more resilient crop varieties around the world

University-based biotech startup NexGen Plants has raised $3 million in funding, including a $1.5 million grant from the Queensland Business Development Fund, to ramp up international expansion of its crop genomics solution.

The rest of the funding has come from existing investors Yuuwa Capital and Uniseed, which have contributed $1 million and $500,000, respectively.

NexGen’s technology was developed in the lab at the University of Queensland by Professor Peer Schenk.

Schenk tells StartupSmart the technology poses an alternative to genetically modified produce, allowing for cross-breeding of plants to introduce desirable traits by adding only the genome that’s required for that trait.

There are big parts of certain plants’ genomes that are “hidden treasures”, Schenk says, and by extracting those genomes and placing them into other plants, the team can mimic the natural breeding process in a “faster and more targeted” way.

It’s not about adding anything new to the plant, it’s “just enhancing a trait that’s already there,” he says.

Through this technology, the startup can create vegetables that are more nutritious for the consumer, rice that can grow in previously inhospitable salty ground, or crops varieties that are resilient to viruses. Read more

Stephanie Palmer-Derrien - SmartCompany - 23 August 2018