AgriTech Startup Raises $8M For Green Solution To Resistant Weeds

Israeli agritech startup WeedOUT, which developed an environmentally friendly solution for herbicide-resistant weeds, has raised $8.1 million in early stage funding. 

The funding round was led by Fulcrum Global Capital, a leading American venture capital firm that focuses on the agriculture sector and has strong ties to the US farming industry.  

WeedOUT has also received several grants from the Israel Innovation Authority, the branch of the government dedicated to advancing the national high-tech sector, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. 

The startup is giving priority to the Palmer amaranth weed, which poses a serious threat to crops in the United States, Brazil and Argentina, including corn, cotton, soybean and sugar beet. It can reach heights of several meters and has the potential to decimate a corn yield by up to 90 percent and soybean by up to 80 percent.  

“WeedOUT is applying an entirely new, green approach that targets the reproductive system of resistant weeds and will provide a sustainable, long-term solution,” said the company’s co-founder and co-CEO Efrat Lidor Nili.

“Fulcrum Global is excited to support WeedOUT’s cutting-edge biological platform and the unique approach it has pioneered to address the resistant weed problem,” said Kevin Lockett, partner at Fulcrum Global Capital. 

“The company’s integrated management approach aligns seamlessly with existing farm practices and could enable growers worldwide to produce more food on the same amount of land and in a much more sustainable way.”