OlsAro Secures €5M Seed Funding to Advance Climate-Resilient Cereal Genetics

Swedish AgTech company OlsAro has closed a €5 million seed round to scale up its cereal genetics platform and commercialize its first climate-resilient crop varieties. Industrifonden led the round, with Nordic Foodtech VC as co-lead. Returning investors Future Food Fund, PINC (the venture arm of Paulig), AgFunder and GU Ventures also took part.

The company's technology is called SeedAX. It combines proprietary genetics, data analytics and AI-driven trait discovery, and is meant to help seed companies develop climate-resilient varieties more quickly.

The company is targeting vulnerabilities in global cereal production. According to the article, roughly one-tenth of the world's cropland is affected by salinity, and threats from drought and extreme weather are rising.

CEO Elén Faxö said the funding matters for the company's wider trajectory. "We have spent years proving that we can identify and develop genetics that perform under some of the conditions putting the greatest pressure on agriculture," he said.

For the Nordic AgTech and AI scene, the round shows investor backing for a Swedish company applying AI to crop genetics, with a mix of established Nordic funds and returning backers. The article, which is based on the company's press release, does not give details on which crop varieties come first or when they will reach the market.