Biome Makers founders Adrián Ferrero and Alberto Acedo met the usual way business partners do — at age five in a judo class in Spain. Later, Acedo got his PhD in molecular biology, while Ferrero took the economics route. They started their first company together in 2010, AC-Gen Reading Life, that used DNA sequencing to identify mutations related to cancer. While working one day, it dawned on the pair that the tech’s uses reached beyond healthcare. “We realized there was an amazing opportunity to bring personalized medicine into agriculture,” Ferrero tells Forbes. “We realized that there were no biological indicators already available, especially in the soil.”
The pair sold AC-Gen Reading Life in 2015 before launching Biome Makers in 2016. The startup acts as the 23andMe for soil, using DNA sequencing and “intelligent computing” to help farmers and companies analyze the microbiomes in their soil to make more sustainable and economical choices. The startup has amassed 80 customers thus far, from large corporations down to small farms, and claims to have built the largest and most diverse database of soil microbiomes available. “The idea initially was to really bring a new layer of data and a new biomarker for farmers to improve the amount they spend on the field,” Ferrero says. “The way we have been farming for the last 40 years is not the way we should be farming for the next 40 years.”
The West Sacramento, California-based company raised a $15 million Series B to bring its total funding to $23 million, as originally reported in Midas Touch. The round was led by Prosus Ventures, with participation from Seaya Ventures, Viking Global Investors, JME Ventures and Pymwymic. Banafsheh Fathieh, the head of investments, America at Prosus, says that investing in Biome Makers was an obvious choice due to her firm’s investment themes of microbiology and sustainability. “To have us move toward a direction where we can use DNA sequencing technology to be able to do that, in a way that ultimately helps farmers and food growers modify some of their practices, is a good thing,” Fathieh says. Ferrero says the startup plans to use the capital to further get the word out about their product.
Biome Makers currently offers two different services. The first, BeCrop, allows customers to order a testing kit to send in soil samples to be tested for their microbial makeup. Biome Makers then sends back a report that breaks down the soil’s health, its risk of potential diseases, and an analysis of its biological makeup. “Our proposal was, ‘what if we understand which of the natural biological activities of the soil are beneficial for the plant growth, and we use them to boost the growth of the plants?’” Ferrero says. “The first step is to identify them and then convert them.” The company has started licensing out this tech, too, to allow companies to test themselves onsite. The other service, Gheom, analyzes how soil reacts to different fertilizers and crop chemicals to give farmers a better idea of what is working and what isn’t.
The tech isn’t just meant to help farmers save a few bucks or increase their yield either, current farming practices aren’t sustainable and won’t be able to feed the rapidly expanding global population. Ferrero hopes that his team might be able to play a role in helping to tackle that. “We are committed to help agriculture deliver food, be more responsible, farm smarter, and as a company, we want to really scale that,” he says. It also looks to be a solution against soil erosion which is a growing problem due to climate change with an impact that spans far past the agriculture sector. “Soil erosion is making a company like Biome Makers no longer a nice-to-have, or an information company, Fathieh says. “It’s becoming a diagnostic company that very much affects the bottom line of farmers today.”