Anuvia™ Plant Nutrients, Winter Garden, Fla., said on Feb. 23 it has raised $103 million in Series C funding and will use the financing to increase production capacity and expand commercialization of its nutrient delivery technology. Anuvia’s SymTRX™ is already in commercial use on U.S. farms, with use expected to increase to reach 20 million acres by 2025.
The Mosaic Co., Tampa, exclusively licensed Anuvia’s SymTRX10S product in the U.S. to be sold as Susterra™ last fall (GM Sept. 25, 2020). Mosaic also holds an equity stake in Anuvia. In addition, Anuvia has a ten-year lease of Mosaic’s Plant City manufacturing facility from Mosaic (GM Sept. 27, 2019).
“By achieving meaningful and immediate reductions in greenhouse gases in crop production, Anuvia is helping to bring Scope 3 sustainability targets into focus,” said Anuvia CEO Amy Yoder. “The immediate ROI for farmers is driving fast adoption of our technology, accelerating the benefits to the entire food value chain.”
Yoder told the Orlando Business Journal that the capacity increases will be at the leased Plant City plant, and that the company has closed its smaller plant at Zellwood, Fla. (GM Jan. 1, p. 1).
Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a global environmental consulting firm, verified the environmental impact of Anuvia’s bio-based SymTRX nutrient technology versus traditional fertilizer on corn, rice, and cotton. The company said the study found that Anuvia’s products, which include both organics and inorganics, reduce greenhouse gases on production by up to 32 percent, compared to the use of conventional fertilizers.
Based on the study, Anuvia said it is possible to state that for every million acres of crops that use Anuvia’s products, the reduction of greenhouse gases is the equivalent of removing up to 30,000 cars from the roads. With 90 million acres of corn in the U.S. alone, this would conservatively translate to 1.8 million cars removed in perpetuity.
The funding was co-led by TPG Alternative & Renewable Technologies and Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund, with additional investment from Generate Capital Inc. and Piva Capital. TPG is a global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with approximately $85 billion of assets.
Pontifax, Santa Monica, Calif., founded in 2013, is a growth capital investor in food and agriculture technology. The firm manages $471 million in assets. Generate Capital, founded in 2014, is a sustainable infrastructure company and partners with over 35 technology and project developers and owns and operates more than 2,000 assets globally. Piva Capital, San Francisco, invests in early- to growth-stage companies around the world.