Pairwise Poised to Revolutionize Agriculture with Industry-Leading Fulcrum™ Platform Following $40M Series C Funding
Summary
Multiple returning investors, including Aliment Capital and Leaps by Bayer, are joined by new investor and global ag technology leader Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), through its Corteva Catalyst platform, further signaling the promise and anticipated benefits of gene editing in agricultural applications.Investments from this funding round will be used to scale Pairwises innovative product pipeline, including seedless berries and pitless cherries, as well as advance its industry-leading Fulcrum Platform. And as leaders in gene editing ourselves, Cortevas ultimate aim is to work with Pairwise to unlock the impact of this technology to help solve climate challenges and produce the food, fiber and fuel required to meet the needs of a growing global population.In parallel to Cortevas equity investment in Pairwise, the two companies have entered into a five-year joint venture collaboration that will focus on accelerating the pace of gene edited technologies and developing improved products that are more resilient to future climate conditions.Cortevas investment in Pairwise is being made through Corteva Catalyst, the companys new investment and partnership platform launched to boost agricultural R&D and sustainable food production innovations.Pairwise was founded by proven business leaders, preeminent experts, and inventors of early gene-editing technologies. As one of the only companies in this space to launch commercially viable products to date, Pairwise introduced the first CRISPR food to North America a blend of superfood mustard greens that eat like lettuce, edited to dial down the wasabi-like pungency for people looking for healthier salad options than what are available in the marketplace today. Additionally, after delivering 27 novel traits to Bayers pipeline under an initial five-year partnership, the two companies entered a second, multi-year collaboration to focus on developing a gene-edited version of short-stature corn to offer farmers better protection for their crops given improved sustainability in high winds and challenging weather conditions, better access during the season, and higher yields.The Pairwise Fulcrum Platform includes company-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing a toolbox that enables not only turning a characteristic on or off, like removing a plants thorns to enable easier fruit harvesting, but also tuning it like a dimmer switch to dial a trait up or down, such as creating a new type of corn with up to 20% more kernel rows. Using Pairwises novel editing tools, scientists can precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding.