The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

AgroSpheres, a company developing the next generation of environmentally-friendly crop protection products, has raised £22 million in a Series B funding round led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood and Ospraie Ag Science. Other participants also included Bidra Innovation Ventures and its existing investor, Cavallo Ventures. The company will use the funds to accelerate product commercialisation, expand manufacturing capacity and "seed broader applications of the AgroSpheres AgriCell platform technology". AgriCell and AgriShell are patented technologies that enable the development of biological pesticides that have a multi-year shelf life and high efficacy in the field. Payam Pourtaheri, founder and CEO of AgroSpheres, said: "In this unprecedented bear market, food security, environmental footprint, and supply chain resilience are of paramount importance. We are thankful for the support from our partners at Lewis & Clark, OAS, Bidra and Cavallo, as we take significant strides towards our vision of a future built by nature's technologies and bring our biobased technologies to partners globally." Ameer Shakeel, founder and CTO of AgroSpheres, added: "The manufacturing expansion will allow us to deliver on the increasing demand for shelf-stable RNA and supply high-quality RNA at the lowest market price to partners in industry, in academia and at the farm gate".