SugaROx, a UK-based venture leading the development of precision biostimulants, has today announced a £400,000 strategic investment from a global player in the fertiliser industry, The Mosaic Company, as part of a £1 million seed round extension.
Existing backers, including UK-based angel investors and sustainable growth-focused investment funds Future Planet Capital and Regenerate Ventures, contributed the remaining £600,000.
Biostimulants are one of the fastest growing crop input sectors, with an estimated 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The £1 million extension follows a £2.4 million grant awarded from the UK's national innovation agency, Innovate UK, to upscale manufacturing of SugaROx's first active ingredient Trehalose-6-Phosphate (T6P).
SugaROx's T6P biostimulant boosts the yields and resilience of crops by inhibiting SnRK1, an enzyme that signals energy scarcity in the plant. Safety tests completed in early 2024 confirmed a promising regulatory outlook for the proprietary T6P and led potential go-to-market partners to request samples for field trials.
SugaROx is working to launch its T6P wheat biostimulant in the UK market in 2027 and in the EU in 2028. This year the venture launched trials in soybean and maize with a view to enter the US and Brazilian markets shortly after.
