Salicrop
Salicrop develops a unique, non-GM, seed treatment for various crops, vegetables and grains. The treatment stimulates a specific epigenetic of the plant which enables crop growing and yielding in high salinity soils or when irrigated with brackish water.
123% of funding target
By: Dotan Borenstein
Successfully fundedAngel Investment
Investment type:
Company Stage:
Category:
Food & Agro
Highlights
Highlights
Innovative and unique technological solution to fight worldwide “food shortage”
One of the key challenges for agriculture is growing crops under salinity conditions. The annual economic burden of salinization, with oversalinated land of 19.6% of irrigated area, has been estimated at $12 billion (FAO). Salicrop disrupting technology enables numerous crops to prosper in salinity conditions. By allowing various crops to be cultivated in salinity conditions (saline soil or irrigation with brackish water), Salicrop provides breakthrough solution for the worldwide “food shortage” challenge.
Breakthrough technological application
Unique novelty and highly innovative technology deliver comprehensive value proposition: Up until these days overcoming Abiotic stress and Salinity stress was approached with expensive, controversial (GM) and not scalable approaches. The developed solutions are not only complex, and expensive in time and cost but also are not feasibly commercial. Salicrop’s approach to overcome the salinity stress challenge to achieve significant yield results. Salicrop’s Non-GM technology was successfully tested in a wide range of vegetables and grains crops under extreme salinity conditions.
Field trial pilots present unprecedented results – increase of yield up to 75%
Salicrop finalized its Proof of Concept (POC) with numerous successful trials in tomatoes, peppers, spinach, rice, wheat and corn. The POC was conducted at Netafim Irrigation research facility in Israel and supervised by Netafim’s agronomist. The scientific evidences were supported by significant statistical data and resulted yield increase of 5%-75% in highly salinated environment. A rice field trail was concluded in Maharashtra, India yielded 32% more grains. The grower and his neighboring farmers became our first customers and were chosen to plant their entire rice field with our seeds in 2019.
Seeds treatment market estimated at billions of $ and growing
Salicrop operates in two main markets in within the agricultural world- The seeds treatment market estimated size of 6 billion $, thriving for technological innovations; And the evolving bio-stimulants market, estimated at 2 billion $. As of today, the above markets relate to Abiotic stress in general and salinity stress too, a fact that turns Salicrop’s solution to a breakthrough technology.
A portfolio company of Rimonim Agro Fund, a startups competition winner with a noteworthy seeds industry collaboration
Rimonim Agro Fund, a leading venture capital in area of AgTech in Israel, was one of the first investors at Salicrop. The fund partners are among Salicrop co-founders and they invested their private money in Salicrop.
Salicrop initiated several joint ventures collaborations with leading seeds companies in Spain, India and Israel. Those collaborations include calibration tests as well as field trials in real life saline conditions within the above countries’ prior commercialization.
The company won first prize at India-Israel 2 nations challenge startups competition- SOCH, prize of $31,500. The competition was initiated and sponsored by the Government Andhra Pradesh state of India and organized by Axis Innovation and DCF Ventures.
Pitch
Pitch
The Idea
Technology advances across many domains – from genetics, to satellite mapping, to precision irrigation – have changed the face of agriculture over the last decades. However, according to the World Bank and other global agencies, the agricultural sector must produce at least 50% more food than it does today if we are going to be able to feed the 9 billion people who will be populating our planet by 2050.
In addition, soil erosion and degradation as well as lack of fresh water are the direct result of climate change and over utilization by mankind. Consequently, increasing agriculture output by 50% is even more challenging. Soil salinity has is major effect of land productivity and the reduction of yields results in less income and less food supply, especially in subsistence farming. Working with salt-affected soils requires more labor to reclaim soils.
Governments and NGOs throughout the world prioritized agricultural salinity in their goal to overcome the “food shortage” crisis. This priority can be found in the establishment government of saline agriculture research institutes in China, India, Europe and more.
The Need
Soil salinization is major threats to the soil resource globally and are among the most common land degradation processes affecting to 19.6% of irrigated area (refer to the table below), a burden that is estimated at $12 billion per annum (FAO). Additionally, the Water-Energy-Food Nexus worries decision makers which are keen to find ways to ease the Nexus and to be able to irrigate crops (food) with non-fresh water i.e. brackish water. These two pains searching for immediate solutions for the future of agriculture and food production.
The Solution
Salicrop develops a unique, non-GM, seeds treatment for various crops varieties, vegetables and grain seeds. The seeds treatment stimulates a specific epigenetic of the plant which enables crop growing and yielding in high salinity soils or when irrigated with brackish water. The technology is a platform technology, that works well with vegetables seeds and grains, cost effective and scalable.
The Technology
Salicrop has developed a unique seed treatment that stimulates epi-genetic reactions that increase the plant's innate capability to endure salinity conditions. The Salicrop technology is based on correlational research in observing whole plant responses, more specifically growth modifications, in response to external stimuli. Salicrop proprietary formulations are based on Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) materials by FDA. The company fine-tune the right formulation and dosing per variety of seeds.
The Scientific Tests
The scientific evidences were supported by significant statistical data and resulted yield increase of 5%-75% in highly salinated environment. A rice field trail was concluded in Maharashtra, India yielded 32% more grains and 63% more biomass. The grower and his neighboring farmers became our first customers and were chosen to plant their entire rice field with our seeds in 2019.
Rice trial roots – treated seeds lead to vital and stronger roots system next to untreated seeds
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Lab spinach scientific test – untreated seeds pot A Vs treated seeds pot B
Rice field trail summary chart concluded in Maharashtra, India yielded 32% more grains and 63% more biomass
Tested crops at Netafim irrigation research center:
- Cherry tomato
- Bell pepper
- Spinach
- Rice
- Sweet corn
- Forage corn
- Wheat
Salicrop in the Media
Timeline
Company milestones:
Planned milestones:
Team
Team
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Biography
Previously VP at Hutchison Kinrot Technology Incubator in Israel, a CK Hutchison Holdings company, Dotan brings extensive experience in early stage startups in the Clean-tech , Energy, Water, AgTech and Environment. He has extensive worldwide networking relationships with numerous leading companies in the following industries: chemistry, food and beverage, energy and water. Prior to joining Hutchison Kinrot Incubator, Dotan served in the Israeli Air Force as a pilot. He was also responsible for establishing, overseeing and managing the IAF’s joint international training programs with allied forces. Dotan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Bar Ilan University and an MBA from HEC in Paris, France
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Biography
Co-Founder & general managing partner at Rimonim Venture Capital with more than 20 years’ experience in the agro-technology and dairy industries and in high-tech start-ups. Served as CEO of NGT, the world’s first Arab-Israeli life science technology incubator, from its inception. CSO at SAE Afikim (Afimilk), the world leader in milk monitoring, and was a research engineer at IMAG-DLO, the Dutch research institute in Wageningen. In addition to SaliCrop, Sharon also co-founded Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies, a company developing eco-friendly root-zone temperature technology to increase crop production. Sharon holds a PhD in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University (Netherlands) and an MSc, BSc in Agricultural Engineering from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
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Biography
Worked as a research molecular biologist at Syngenta India (Seeds sector), where she was also involved in the regulatory compliance/public interaction issues of the launch of genetically-modified Bt Cotton in India. After Syngenta, she oversaw Quality Assurance at a leading Indian pharmaceutical drug manufacturing company. Based out of Mumbai, Rca currently advises corporate clients and a law firm in IP-related technology issues for the chemical, pharma and agbiotech industries. Rca holds a PhD in Plant Biology from Albert Ludwig University (Freiburg, Germany) and an MSc, BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Mumbai. She conducted post-doctoral research at the Heidelberger Institute for Plant Sciences and the Technical University of Munich.
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Biography
Founder of TopSeed, which was ultimately acquired by Kaiima, a next-generation seed and breeding technology company. Omar is a co-founder and board member of NGT, an Arab-Israeli technological incubator in Nazareth; the owner of Samco, a company involved in seed breeding; and a co-founder of Frutavit, which develops preserving agents for the food and beverage sectors. Omar graduated from the Mikveh Israel Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural school in Israel.
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Biography
Co-Founder & general managing partner at Rimonim Venture Capital, with combined expertise in business, finance, technology, and medicine, Michal co-founded and serves as chairman of Pro IV Medical, a start-up involved in reducing medical errors. Previous to that, Michal was a venture partner and EIR at Pitango, a leading Israeli VC, and clinical trial manager at the Innovative R&D division at Teva. Michal served as clinical development director at Medinol and was CEO of MES, Medical Electronic Systems. Michal was a director in Nutrinia, and board member at Atria, and USET. After receiving her MD and BSc from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Michal was a physician on staff at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, Israel.
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Biography
With more than 20 years of experience in the food and consumer goods industries, Yigal was the former CEO for the Tnuva Food Division and CEO of Maabarot Products, a publicly traded food and dietary supplement manufacturer. At Strauss, Yigal served as deputy CEO & VP Central & Eastern Europe (International BV division) and was general manager of Elite Coffee. Yigal was the general manager at Excella SA, France. Yigal holds an MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France) and a BA in Economics and Art History from Tel Aviv University.
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Biography
Manager of the agricultural research department in Netafim Magal and a consultant to Agtech and Agbiotech companies. Eli has been involved in a wide range of Israeli and international (Australia, China) agricultural development projects including: new irrigation methods for vegetables, sugarcane and rice; fertigation and subsurface drip irrigation methods for cotton; a delivery system that supplies plant requirements to the roots via drip irrigation; etc. Eli holds a BSc from the Hebrew University Faculty of Agriculture (Rehovot)
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