Agri startup BioPrime Agrisolutions raises Rs 9 crore in a Pre-Series

Tech-focused VC fund, Inflexor Ventures, leads the Pre-Series a round of Rs 9 crore in Agbiotech startup, BioPrime Agrisolutions (BioPrime). The current round of funding also saw participation from its existing investor, Omnivore. Inflexor has invested in 10 companies so far since November 2020, from its Fund II, companies including Atomberg, GramCover and Kale Logistics.

The company aims to utilise the funds for their SNIPR Biologicals registrations, advancing the discovery platform, building a strong IP portfolio, increasing production capabilities, and expansion.

BioPrime, founded by Dr Renuka Karandikar, Dr Amit Shinde and Dr Shekhar Bhosle, develops affordable agribiologicals that modulate the basic physiological responses in crops using small biomolecules. These products improve crop resistance to insects/pests and help crops manage abiotic stress such as high temperature, excessive water, drought, etc. These products are not chemical based, are residue-free, organic, and are less expensive than chemical-based fertilisers and pesticides; thereby reducing the overall farm input expenses.

“Bioprime works to transform the way we grow crops making food more nutritious, and residue-free while restoring soil health using cutting-edge technologies and approaches, always keeping sustainability at our core. At Bioprime we are focusing on discovering fundamental aspects of plant communication, developing novel biologicals based on trait-modifying microbes and physiology-modulating molecules.”, said Renuka, CEO of BioPrime Agrisolutions.

“We believe that the stellar founding team of BioPrime is well equipped to solve the complex food security problem brought to the forefront by climate change. The IP-led, high-throughput biomolecule discovery platform will facilitate faster market access. Such a technology platform fits well with Inflexor’s investing thesis of backing impactful, pure science companies from the Indian deep tech ecosystem.”, said Pratip Mazumdar, Partner at Inflexor Ventures.

“BioPrime is our first investment under the OmniX Bio initiative, which backs early-stage agrifood life science startups. We started OmniX Bio with the knowledge that innovations in agrifood life sciences can be the most effective weapon to combat climate change. BioPrime is an excellent example of an invention designed to improve human and planetary health alongside farmer incomes and we are delighted to back them” said Jinesh Shah, Partner at Omnivore Partners.

BioPrime Agrisolutions develops agribiologicals that help make crops climate resilient, protecting yields and crops from fluctuating weather, untimely rains, and temperature stress. BioPrime has developed a patented high-throughput screening platform called SNIPR, which cuts research time from weeks to hours. Further, the company is developing Bionexus, a microbe discovery platform to develop next-gen microbes with the potential to manipulate plant traits such as drought tolerance, disease resistance, enhanced yields, etc.

Inflexor Ventures is a sector-agnostic VC firm that invests in deep and emerging technology start-ups from Pre-Series A to Series B stages. The team at Inflexor Ventures brings decades of experience in fund management and investments, serial entrepreneurship with exits to US-listed companies, and global technology and operational roles.