OlsAro is developing climate-resilient cereals through a platform that combines plant biotechnology, genetically diverse seed populations and data-driven trait discovery building on more than a decade of research. They have already proven their technology with up to 41% yield increase in saline conditions, shown in 4-year field trials with their first product. Their SeedAx biotech platform cut seed development time by half compared to traditional breeding methods, and the company aim to expand their product portfolio with additional climate-resilient seeds.

Agricultural adaptation is often discussed in terms of irrigation, precision farming, andbetter soil management. All of these matters, but if the seed itself cannottolerate heat, drought or salinity, changes in farming practice can only go sofar.

Genetics sets a crop’s underlying capacity to perform. Better-adapted varieties let farmers protect yield while using less water and fertilizer. Unlike infrastructure-heavy interventions, a new trait doesn’t require the farm to change how it operates. That leverage is also what makes seed genetics an attractive place to invest. Farmers and seed companies are rightly conservative when a bad bet cost them a year’s harvest. But where the science holds, the venture case is compelling. Proprietary germplasm, validated traits and years of field data is hard to replicate.

Three things about the fit between problem, technology and route to market that convinced us to back OlsAro:

1.     The problem is large and underserved. OlsAro have started with cereals, addressing core genetics for staple food.  

2.     The technology shortens the path without adding regulatory risk. OlsAro combines data-driven trait discovery with non-GMO, population-based breeding. The result is a faster and more predictable route from genetic discovery to real varieties. ³

3.     The route to market runs through the industry that already exists, not around it.  OlsAro’s traits are designed to be licensed into breeding programmes of established seed companies. This creates the potential for royalty-based revenue while giving seed companies a way to keep improving their product portfolio.

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We are excited to co-lead this oversubscribed A-round together with Nordic FoodTech VC and existing investors PINC, Future for Food, AgFunder, Mudcake, Flora and GUVentures, to take the company to the next level.

In the coming years OlsAro will enter more markets and prove the technology in additional geographies as well as putting new varieties in the soil.

No single company or technology will make agriculture climate-proof. But the gap between the crops we have and the climate we are entering is widening. Climate adaptation must begin long before a heatwave reaches the farm. It begins with the seed.

Sources

1. Surface airtemperature for July 2026 | Copernicus

2. Global and regional food consumption patterns and trends, IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter05.pdf

3. GMO authorisation - Food Safety - European Commission

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