NewLeaf Symbiotics Raises $17 Million in Series B Financing Led By Otter Capital

ST. LOUIS - Sept. 17, 2014 - PRLog -- – NewLeaf Symbiotics (http://www.newleafsym.com/), a St Louis, Missouri-based agricultural biotechnology company focused on the commercialization of beneficial plant bacteria, announced today that it has closed a $17 million Series B round of financing. The proceeds will be used to further accelerate its successful R&D program, ramp up production from pilot to commercial scale, and go to market with its first biological products. Otter Capital (http://www.ottercapital.com/) led the round and was joined by existing investors RockPort Capital (http://www.rockportcap.com/), Open Prairie Ventures (http://www.openprairie.com/) and Pangaea Ventures (http://www.pangaeaventures.com/). NewLeaf closed a $7 Million Series A round (http://brdg-park.com/press_release/newleaf-symbiotics-raises-7-million-in-series-a-financing-from-rockport-capital-open-prairie-ventures-and-pangaea-ventures/) in January 2013.

“We have made huge strides on the discovery side and have filed over 20 patents since inception,” said Tom Laurita, CEO of NewLeaf.  “We are rapidly expanding our Prescriptive Biologics™ platform and are developing a deep pipeline of commercial product candidates.  NewLeaf is now poised to bring natural bacteria-based seed and foliar products to growers.”

Otter Capital Founder John Pasquesi is impressed with NewLeaf’s highly professional team and the significant progress made in a relatively short time. “I am a big believer in the future of biologicals as an alternative or supplement to conventional agriculture inputs and GMO technologies,” Pasquesi commented.  “This technology could represent one of the major breakthroughs in agriculture in the next few years.”

Daniel Hullah of RockPort Capital added, “We are thrilled to have John and Otter Capital as a co-investor and partner to help NewLeaf bring its industry leading technology platform to the marketplace.”

About NewLeaf Symbiotics:  NewLeaf is a non-GMO biotech company that researches and commercializes beneficial plant bacteria, and is a leading player in the rapidly growing agricultural biologicals space.  In 2013 NewLeaf acquired bioinformatics solutions leader Intuitive Genomics, and employs a focused genomics approach to discovery and analysis of plant/microbe interactions.  In Q2 2014 the company tripled its R&D footprint at BRDG Park in St Louis, Missouri and plans to nearly double the size of its team to 30.  NewLeaf expects initial product sales in 2015.  Visit NewLeaf Symbiotics at www.newleafsym.com.

About Otter Capital:  Otter Capital has a strong track record developing leading edge agriculture and food production companies. Otter was an early and consistent investor in AgraQuest, a leading biopesticide company. In 2012, Bayer CropScience acquired AgraQuest for $425 million plus earnouts. Otter Capital founder John Pasquesi previously served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of AgraQuest. More recently, Otter Capital invested alongside Khosla Ventures in a $15 million funding round for BioConsortia, Inc. - an agricultural biotechnology company.   In August 2014 Otter Capital led a $6 million series B raise in Green and Grow, a Texas-based bio-products company. Visit Otter Capital at www.ottercapital.com.