On April 11, 2006, agricultural company Syngenta International of Basel launched a $100-million venture capital fund that willinvest in growth companies and biotech startups working on plant biotech, the company’s core business, as well as other fields like human health, animal nutrition, biomaterials and biofuels.
The new fund is called Bioventures and will be managed from the recently opened Boston office of Life Sciences Partners (LSP), a venture capital firm based in Amsterdam. LSP has funneled $350 million into 40 European biotech startups over the past ten years.
Fresh funding for agricultural biotech was also announced by Hans Kast, president of the newly formed plant science unit of chemical giant BASF of Ludwigshafen, Germany. On April 11, in Chicago, Kast told reporters at the BIO 2006 conference that his company plans to invest $320 million over the next three years in the development of second and third generation genetically modified (GM) crops.
BASF ’s first GM crop plant, a potato with modified starch composition destined for nonfood markets, is awaiting approval byauthorities in the EU.