OlsAro secures €5M to scale AI genetics for climate-resilient crops

OlsAro, a Swedish AgTech startup based in Gothenburg, has raised €5 million in seed funding to bring its wheat to market. The company uses AI genetics to develop climate-resilient crops. It is a spinout from Lund University and the University of Gothenburg.

Industrifonden led the round, with Nordic Foodtech VC as co-lead. Existing investors Future Food Fund, AgFunder, GU Ventures and PINC, the venture arm of Paulig, also took part.

The new money follows a €2.5 million round in April 2024. OlsAro announced that round as a seed round but now describes it as pre-seed. Total funding to date is about €7.5 million.

The two lead investors are Nordic institutions. Industrifonden calls itself Sweden's venture capital fund. It manages more than 5 billion Swedish krona and backs companies from seed to Series A in deep tech, life science and transformative tech. Nordic Foodtech VC has a team in Helsinki and Copenhagen. It runs a €42 million fund launched in 2020 and a second fund launched in 2025. It makes initial investments of up to €2 million and focuses on research spinouts in the Nordic and Baltic countries, a profile that fits OlsAro.

The funding marks a step from research toward commercialisation for a university spinout working on crop resilience to climate change. The source gives no further detail on the wheat itself, such as its traits or the timeline for reaching the market.