Key Takeaways
- Biographica has raised £7 million in a seed funding round led by Faber.
- EQT Foundation participated in the round alongside multiple institutional and early-stage investors.
- The funding will support platform expansion, commercial rollout, and laboratory capabilities.
- Biographica works with seed companies including BASF | Nunhems and Cibus.
- The company has opened its first laboratory at Rothamsted Research.
Biographica Closes Seed Funding Round Led by Faber
Biographica, a UK-based company developing machine learning tools for crop gene discovery, has raised £7 million in seed funding. The round was led by Faber, with participation from EQT Foundation as well as SuperSeed, Cardumen Capital, The Helm, Sie Ventures, and existing investors including Chalfen Ventures, Entrepreneurs First, Nucleus Capital, Dhyan Ventures, Saras Capital, and Ventures Together.
The funding will be used to support Biographica’s commercial rollout, expand its experimental and laboratory capabilities, and extend its platform to additional crop traits. EQT Foundation participated in the round as part of its broader focus on supporting innovation aligned with long-term sustainability and resilience.
Biographica’s Machine Learning Platform for Crop Improvement
Biographica is developing a machine learning platform designed to decode the genetic architecture of crops and improve the efficiency of trait discovery. Conventional crop improvement pipelines can take more than a decade and often fail to identify optimal gene targets early in development. Biographica’s approach aims to identify promising targets earlier and with higher accuracy, reducing time, cost, and development risk.
The platform has been used to identify gene targets linked to yield improvement and disease resistance. According to the company, two commercial partners have progressed these targets into validation pipelines. Internal benchmarks indicate higher discovery accuracy compared to traditional methods.
Commercial Traction and Partner Engagement
Biographica is initially focused on licensing trait discoveries to seed companies through success-based commercial models. The company has reported commercial traction with seed companies including BASF | Nunhems and Cibus, both of which have moved from pilot projects to commercial contracts tied to development milestones.
A key focus for the next phase of growth is prioritizing trait areas with clear demand and defined unit economics to support co-development and licensing agreements with industry partners.
Facilities Expansion and Leadership Perspective
As part of its expansion, Biographica has opened its first laboratory at Rothamsted Research. The facility is intended to support in-house validation, data generation, and model development to strengthen the company’s licensing and partnership efforts.
Cecy Price, CEO and Co-founder of Biographica, said, “Our partnerships with leading seed companies show the industry is ready for AI-first approaches to trait discovery, helping bring new crop traits to market more efficiently.”
Biographica stated that the latest funding round positions the company to continue scaling its platform and partnerships across the global seed industry.
