Crop protection innovator raises growth cash

CHESHIRE-based agro-chemicals business Redag Crop Protection is creating up to 20 jobs after a fresh fund-raising.

The small business, which was demerged last year from biotech firm Redx, has raised $2m (£1.4m) in a fundraising led by Manchester advisory firm Acceleris Capital.

The investment was secured  from existing backer  the North West Fund for Venture Capital, managed by Enterprise Ventures along with further investment from the Seneca EIS Portfolio Service.

The investment will create up to 20 new science posts at the Alderley Park life science complex in Cheshire. Redag will also bolster its senior team by recruiting a chief operating officer and two non-executive directors.

Chief executive Bill Thompson said: “We are delighted with the outcome of the funding round that generated strong interest from investors and will allow us to now realise the ambitious plans we have for Redag Crop. We have continued to build on our technical success in our first 12 months increasing our pipeline of novel active candidates for the agrochemical industry and further developing commercial relationships.”

Norman Molyneux at Acceleris added: “There’s a great deal of interest in Redag and we were delighted to help Bill and his team secure the funding to take the company into the next stage of development.”

Doug Stellman, investment director at Enterprise Ventures said: “There is already commercial interest in the novel chemistries developed to date, and we are delighted to be able to back such an innovative business in this sector”.

Nicholas Hawthorne of DWF provided legal advice to Redag while Andrew O’Mahony of Brabners advised Enterprise Ventures.