In California, Boost Biomes closed a $2.05M seed round, led by Nimble Ventures and Viking Global Investors and including other participants such as Tencent, to develop microbiome-based products. Boost Biomes’ proprietary DNA sequencing-based discovery platform was developed by the company’s cofounders, biotechnology veterans Rob McBride, Jamie Bacher and Adam Arkin, to identify commercially viable microbial products. The team’s initial focus is in agriculture.
Boost Biomes’ first two products are focused on improving yield in the field and reducing spoilage after harvest, and are being evaluated in commercially relevant trials. The company’s approach to improving microbiome function includes a proprietary discovery platform that uses high-throughput next-generation sequencing, selective enrichment and advanced informatics to identify microbial products with important commercial roles.
“The key to leveraging microbes to impact food sustainability challenges is figuring out how to sift through enormous diversity and identify specific microbes, or groups of microbes, that will have an impact in real world conditions,” said Boost Biomes cofounder, Rob McBride.