Robigo raises Series A led by Leaps by Bayer to advance engineered crop protection biologicals

Robigo has secured Series A financing led by Leaps by Bayer to accelerate development and commercialisation of engineered microbial biopesticides designed to protect crop yields while reducing treatment costs.

The financing round also included participation from Illumina Ventures, SVG Thrive, Congruent Ventures and Endeavor8.

Robigo plans to use the funding to support the launch of its first crop protection products in the United States and to expand its pipeline into additional soil borne diseases affecting broadacre crops.

The company’s first programme is being developed for Sudden Death Syndrome in soybeans, a disease estimated to cause between $200 million and $500 million in annual losses for U.S. growers.

Robigo said its engineered microbial treatment has matched the performance of commercially available chemical products at approximately half the cost.

The company is targeting a 2028 launch for this product.

A second programme is focused on fusarium wilt, which Robigo describes as the leading fungal disease affecting lettuce and berry growers.

In testing, the treatment increased yields threefold compared with untreated controls.

Robigo is targeting a 2029 launch for the second product.

The company’s technology is built around its ARGO platform, which uses synthetic biology and computational design to engineer living microbes with traits intended to control crop diseases.

The platform is designed to create active ingredients that silence genes essential to the target pathogen.

Robigo said ARGO can reduce product development timelines to under 20 months, compared with an industry standard of three to five years.

The engineered microbes are applied once and are designed to continuously produce and deliver the active ingredients throughout the growing season.

According to Robigo, this approach can provide season long protection without requiring growers to change their existing farming practices.

Andee Wallace, PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Robigo, said the company aims to develop biological crop protection products that can match or exceed the performance of conventional chemistries while remaining affordable and sustainable.

She said growers should not have to choose between efficacy, cost and environmental impact.

Juergen Eckhardt, PhD, Executive Vice President and Head of Leaps by Bayer, said Robigo’s platform stood out because of its potential to generate multiple products against different soil borne pathogens rather than relying on a single programme.

He said the company’s crop protection pipeline could complement Bayer’s existing portfolio while helping farmers reduce losses, lower environmental impact and improve resilience.

Robigo said the Series A will also support expansion into additional crop diseases representing an estimated $10 billion addressable market.

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Related Topics and Keywords

ag biotech, Agriculture, Bayer, pharma news, Robigo, soy beans, synthetic biology