Agri business Redag raises £1.6million in initial funding round

Funding is for crop protection products

Agrochemical discovery company Redag Crop Protection Limited has completed an initial £1.6m equity fundraising, as part of a larger financing round. 

The spinout from drug development company Redx Pharma will use the capital to develop crop protection products and agrochemical discovery programme Project Evolve.

Based at Alderley Park in Cheshire, Redag currently has in excess of 50 new compounds in development including later-stage products in glasshouse testing and field trials. The company is targeting multiple different markets within the crop protection product sector and has filed an extensive IP estate.

The fund raising represents the first venture deal for advisory firm KPMG Acceleris and sees existing shareholders, including family offices and high net worth investors, re-investing in the business. The relationship with Redag predates the move of the Acceleris team to KPMG.

It secured approval from the Financial Conduct Authority in November 2022 and has a particular focus on businesses in technology, life sciences and ESG-related sectors.

Bill Thompson, chief executive of Redag Crop Protection, said: “This successful fundraising from our supportive investor base will enable us to accelerate the unique intellectual property position created by Project Evolve. The industry has seen a declining number of compounds in development following a period of consolidation across large agrochemical companies, alongside an increasing number of compounds being deregistered or withdrawn for health, safety or environmental reasons. Right across the industry there is a strategic need for new compounds to replace the older compounds to provide greater efficacy, safety and environmental sustainability.

“At Redag, we seek to address the global challenge of food security by providing highly active, low dose solutions to the biotic challenges to crops which can be registered at low cost, rapidly opening the availability of proprietary products to a wider customer base than has previously been the case.”

The fundraising was led by Simon Thorn, managing partner of KPMG Acceleris. He said: “Bill and the team at Redag Crop have built something really special. The business is a standout innovator in the sector that is pushing the boundaries of sustainable food production. The fundraising provides vital capital to fuel the development and commercialisation of its cutting-edge crop protection products.”

 

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