A fresh wave of capital is flowing into agricultural biotechnology as investors back technologies aimed at securing global food supplies. Norwich-based AgTech startup Tropic has closed an oversubscribed €91.3 million Series C round, giving the company the resources to accelerate the rollout of its gene-edited tropical crop portfolio.
The financing was co-led by Forbion through its Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva via its Corteva Catalyst investment platform, with strong participation from Just Climate and IQ Capital. New investors ABN Amro and Invest International also joined the round, alongside existing backers Temasek, Five Seasons Ventures, Sucden Ventures, Genoa Ventures, and Polaris Partners.
As part of the deal, Joy Faucher of Forbion, Tom Greene of Corteva, and Siddarth Shrikanth of Just Climate will join Tropic’s board. Gustavo Bassetti, Rob Scott, Onno van de Stolpe and Alex Wilson will participate as board observers.
Building stronger tropical crops
Founded in 2016 by Eyal Maori and Gilad Gershon, Tropic focuses on developing healthier and more resilient varieties of tropical crops. The company specialises in crops that are central to global diets but vulnerable to disease, climate stress and supply disruptions.
Its current research pipeline centres on banana and rice, two staple foods consumed across the world. By improving their resilience and productivity, Tropic aims to help stabilise supply chains and reduce losses that occur between farms and global markets.
The science behind Tropic’s approach
At the heart of Tropic’s innovation is its proprietary GEiGS® platform, which combines gene editing with gene silencing techniques. These tools allow scientists to modify specific genetic targets in crops to strengthen disease resistance, improve yields and enhance environmental sustainability.
The platform has already been used to develop banana varieties designed to withstand Panama Disease, a devastating fungal infection threatening global banana production. By targeting both plant genes and pathogen genetic material, the technology enables plants to activate natural defence mechanisms while maintaining productivity.
GEiGS® integrates elements of modern gene-editing technologies, including CRISPR, with naturally occurring gene-silencing processes in plants. This approach enables researchers to refine crop traits while reducing the impact of pests and diseases.
Gene-edited banana innovation
The funding arrives after a breakthrough period for the company. In 2025, Tropic launched the first new commercial banana varieties in more than 75 years, marking a significant milestone for the global fruit industry.
Among them is a non-browning banana, recognised as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025, designed to maintain its appearance and freshness after being cut. Another variety extends the fruit’s green life by an additional 12 days, increasing field yields, opening new export routes and reducing transportation waste by up to 50%.
At the same time, the company advanced its Panama Disease TR4 resistance programme, shipping plants to establish a mother plantation. This step lays the groundwork for commercial deployment expected in 2027.
Scaling production and tackling food security
The new capital will allow Tropic to expand large-scale plant production, strengthen supply chains and deepen commercial partnerships across major banana export markets.
It will also accelerate the development of banana varieties resistant to TR4 and Black Sigatoka, two diseases that threaten global banana production. Beyond bananas, Tropic plans to scale its rice programme and begin expanding into additional crops with the potential to improve food security.
With climate pressures intensifying and global demand for staple crops rising, Tropic’s latest funding signals growing investor confidence in technologies designed to safeguard the future of agriculture.
Gilad Gershon, CEO of Tropic, said, “This funding is a powerful endorsement of our team’s ability to bring breakthrough products to the hands of growers, exporters and consumers around the world. We are entering a new era, one where gene‑edited crops will significantly enhance food security and sustainability. 2025 proved that our technology delivers – not in the distant future, but right now. With two banana varieties already on the market and demand outstripping supply, this investment enables us to scale global production and expand into new crops faster than ever before. We are excited to be partnering with our new investors as we progress our mission to build a world-leading tropical seeds company.”
“The GEiGS® platform combines the benefits of both gene editing and RNA interference (RNAi) to enable the development of non-transgenic yet hereditary gene silencing applications. In this platform, instead of editing coding genes, we make minimal edits to specific non-coding genes of a host organism using available molecular tools (e.g. CRISPR, TALENs) so that the natural gene silencing machinery of the host is redirected towards selected targets,” he explained.
