Bindbridge, a Cambridge-based ag-biotech startup, has secured £2.8 million in early-stage investment from Speedinvest and Nucleus Capital. It is developing next-generation crop protection designed to improve crop resilience and agricultural outputs.
Its core product is BRIDGE, a computational platform that leverages AI to discover and design molecular glues capable of degrading a target protein in a weed or pest leveraging the plant’s intracellular protein control system. The approach is intended to address environmental persistence, human health concerns and accelerating herbicide resistance, which are constraining legacy crop protection. The UN reports that 40% of crops are lost to plant pests annually, while diseases cost the global economy over $220 billion. Bindbridge delivers a new R&D approach to a global ag-chem industry that spends up to $9 billion a year on crop protection research and can take as long as 12 years to bring a new active ingredient to market.
With backing from Speedinvest and Nucleus Capital, it gains access to climate and deeptech expertise and networks. Over the next 12 months, Bindbridge will partner with agro-chemical companies on targeted protein degradation co-development projects, based on late-stage discussions in progress, and start lab testing its first agricultural molecular glues.
Bindbridge was founded by Cambridge University friends Dr George Crane, Dr Alex Campbell, and Dr Simeon Spasov in March 2025 to build AI for targeted protein degradation in plants. The eight-person team combines experience across ML engineering, plant biology, chemistry, agriculture, and venture building.
The agricultural industry faces significant performance and sustainability challenges which is driving demand for more efficient products. Yet there’s no affordable, rational, or systematic way to discover molecular glues that are the foundation for such products. We’re changing that. We’re using the power of AI to rapidly and accurately derive new molecules that can change farming’s future.
We invested because Bindbridge is bringing modern AI to one of the most overlooked and consequential industries on Earth. They’re building the BRIDGE platform for the next generation of crop protection, unlocking entirely new chemical space that the industry simply couldn’t reach before. This is the rare combination of deep science, a massive market, and a team that can build the foundation for the next era of crop protection.
Bindbridge is pioneering a new class of molecular glues that can transform how we protect the world’s crops. Addressing herbicide resistance at scale and rebuilding resilience in global food systems are among the highest priorities for human and environmental health and political stability. Their computational platform unlocks billion-dollar markets with a scalable, IP-first model, laying the groundwork for a new era of sustainable agriculture.
