New Syngenta Ventures invests in Metabolon, biotech company with advance diagnostics
Oct. 28, 2009
BASEL, Switzerland -- Syngenta Ventures has made an equity investment in Metabolon, a privately-held U.S. biotechnology company focused on the use of metabolomics in research and diagnostics.
This is the first direct investment by Syngenta Ventures, Syngenta's newly-established corporate venture capital subsidiary.
"The creation of Syngenta Ventures will complement our in-house R&D work and enables us to be even more involved in promising technologies and innovative products with external partners," said Robert Berendes, Head of Business Development at Syngenta. "We need access to the best available new technologies in order to achieve the increase in agricultural output which will be vital over the coming years."
Sandro Aruffo, Head of Research and Development at Syngenta, added: "This investment follows a research collaboration with Metabolon which has existed for some years. We believe Metabolon's unique metabolomics platform will be an increasingly important technology for the development of innovative new products in the agriculture industry."
Metabolomics provides mechanistic insight and biochemical markers for complex biological processes. This technology aims to accelerate the development of plants with innovative new native and genetically modified traits.
Syngenta Ventures will take a seat on the Board of Metabolon. The equity investment was made in the Series C financing of Metabolon which raised in total $12.3 million from a number of investors, including Syngenta Ventures.
Financial details of the equity investment were not disclosed.
Syngenta is one of the world's leading companies with more than 24,000 employees in over 90 countries dedicated to our purpose: Bringing plant potential to life. Through world-class science, global reach and commitment to our customers we help to increase crop productivity, protect the environment and improve health and quality of life.
Metabolon is a diagnostics and services company offering the industry's leading biochemical profiling platform. Metabolon's patented platform provides a global analysis of complex biological samples for the discovery of markers. This metabolomics-driven approach enables the identification of biomarkers useful for the development of a wide range of diagnostics and provides insight into complex biochemical processes such as drug action, toxicology and bioprocess optimization.
SOURCE: Syngenta news release.
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