ADM Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of ADM, announces its investment in Seventure’s Health For Life Capital (HFLC) Fund II. HFLC, based in Paris, is a leading venture capital fund dedicated to health, nutrition, microbiota and digital health.
“We view Seventure as the premier investor in microbiome startups focused on human health and nutrition, and since 2018, ADM has worked closely with the Seventure team to identify opportunities with microbiome solutions that can ultimately help with dietary supplements and food and beverage applications to serve as functional or proactive solutions,” said Darren Streiler, managing director of ADM Ventures.
“We believe Seventure can help meet the long-term demand we see as the result of the convergence of food and pharmaceuticals and consumers looking more towards bioactives and nutrition for wellness solutions.”
The microbiome consists of trillions of micro-organisms that reside on or inside the human body. ADM’s primary interest is the vast, complex bacterial ecosystem that lives within the digestive tract and constitutes the majority of every individual’s unique microbiome.
“With a better understanding of how the microbiome ecosystem works, we can develop functional ingredients for dietary supplements and food and beverage solutions targeted to help improve overall health,” Streiler says. “We are focused on looking at new, innovative solutions that can lead to a more balanced bacterial system in your digestive tract, otherwise known as a healthy gut, and can help lead to better health.”
ADM is committed to discovering and leveraging nutritional ingredients that can be used for preventative health, as well as for treating common ailments or even chronic diseases in both humans and animals. The company’s new probiotics production facility in Valencia, Spain – which will significantly increase its post -- and prebiotic production capacity -– is planned to be online in 2022.
For more information about ADM’s functional health solutions, visit adm.com/functionalhealth.
ADM Seeks Partners in Crop Assessment Technology
In other news, ADM has received two reissued patents for its innovative technology to use aircraft, photography and sophisticated algorithms to forecast crop production, and is actively looking for partners to license the technology.
“We originally developed this cutting-edge technology for use in our crop insurance business, and today we believe it has wide applicability across the agricultural world,” says Dan Nisser, CFO of ADM’s Ag Services and Oilseeds business. “It’s clear that aerial mapping and evaluation is a significant differentiator in agriculture – and a market that could exceed $5 billion in the coming years. Our technology is highly advanced, bringing together aircraft, photography and sophisticated algorithms to assess crop conditions, and forecast production. We believe this technology is ripe for wide adoption, and we’re excited to reach out to partners who will put it to good use.”
Technology utilizing agricultural aircraft can scout crops by tracking plant growth, identify crop stress due to weather or pest damage, forecast commodity yields, and more. Image data -- including photographic, multispectral, hyperspectral, and infrared –- combined with analytics tools can provide up-to-date and actionable information to growers, seed dealers, crop insurance companies, commodity dealers, and others.
US RE47,742 E, “Evaluating Commodity Conditions Using Aerial Image Data” re-issued on Nov. 26, 2019, is a re-issue of US 8,965,812. US RE46,968 E, with the same title and of the same original patent, had been previously reissued.
Companies interested in potentially licensing the patents should contact Kim Ayers at [email protected] or (603) 801-5672.
