Avalo Secures $11M to Revolutionize Sugarcane Production with AI-Driven Breeding

Avalo, an AI-powered startup focused on developing climate-resilient crops, has secured $11 million in a Series A funding round and partnered with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) to future-proof its sugarcane supply chain. The funding effort was co-led by Germin8 Ventures and Alexandria Venture Investments, with contributions from several other investors, including CCEP, Trust Ventures, Trailhead Capital, and angel investor Will Canine. Existing investors such as At One Ventures, Better Ventures, SOSV, and Climate Capital also participated. The financing will enable Avalo to further deploy its rapid evolution platform, aimed at introducing crops like low-input cotton and sugarcane that require less nitrogen fertilizer and water. This initiative is part of a broader goal to reduce scope 3 emissions and promote agricultural sustainability. Avalo's key technology, Gene Discovery by Informationless Perturbation (GDIP), is based on interpretable AI, allowing the identification of crucial genetic information amidst biological noise. It hopes to drastically reduce the time for sugarcane varietal development from 12 to 5-6 years. The partnership with CCEP is focused on reducing the environmental impact of the sugarcane industry, notably in Australia, where fertilizer runoff is affecting the Great Barrier Reef. Avalo is also advancing AI applications in other staple crops like cotton, rice, and rubber to optimize sustainability and crop resilience. Despite challenges in agtech financing, Avalo's collaboration with corporate giants like CCEP signals robust market potential.