Akplanta Co., Ltd.
Akplanta raises 480 million yen from 3 companies in Series A round ~Aiming to solve food problems caused by climate change, expand human resources and structure building for overseas expansion~
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Akplanta Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO: Kim, Jong-Myong) announced that it has raised approximately 480 million yen through third-party allotment of capital in the Series A round. The recipients are as follows (titles omitted, in order of investment amount).
・Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and Partner: Shosuke Kiba)
・IT Farm Co., Ltd. (Head office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Morimine Kurosaki)
・Norinchukin Innovation Investment Limited Partnership (Operator: Global Brain Co., Ltd.)
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〇 Purpose of funding
The main purpose of this funding is to promote business and build a global team structure, with the aim of further accelerating overseas expansion centered on the United States. We will work to strengthen our organizational foundation by actively recruiting for positions such as CXO candidates, overseas business development personnel, and research managers in related fields.
〇 Comments from the underwriter (titles omitted)
Juichiro Yamaguchi Universal Materials Incubator Co., Ltd. Partner We highly rate Acplanta’s biostimulant as having a solid technological foundation based on President Kim’s research results from his time at RIKEN. They say they will focus on developing the product mainly overseas in order to implement it in society in the future, and we would like to provide hands-on support. I sincerely hope that Acplanta’s biostimulants will be widely used around the world and contribute to solving problems on a global scale.
Shinya Kasuga・IT Farm Co., Ltd. General Partner
Since 1999, IT-Farm has been making early investments in innovative technologies around the world as Japan’s first cross-border VC. After winning the XTC JAPAN contest sponsored by our company, Akplanta is supporting overseas networking. In recent years, damage to crops due to drought and heat waves has become increasingly serious in North America, and this time we are focusing on Akplanta’s business development capabilities and technological superiority, which is making concrete progress in selling products not only to overseas distributors but also to local farmers. We have invested. We will continue to support Akplanta in increasing its global value through business development and capital alliances with overseas companies. Hiroaki Shiraishi, Deputy Director, Digital Innovation Promotion Department, Norinchukin Bank
Following on from the previous round, we have decided to make an additional investment in this round. Environmental issues such as global warming and water shortages are having a major impact on agriculture on a global scale, and we believe that our products, which are based on cutting-edge research results in plant epigenetics, have the potential to spread even further around the world. I am sure. Through this investment, we look forward to expanding our sales not only domestically but also overseas, and expanding our technology to help realize sustainable agriculture and food production around the world.
Yukari Nishiyama Director, Global Brain Co., Ltd.
Continuing from the previous round, we have invested in this round as well. The effects of climate change are becoming evident in all fields, but the impact of abnormal weather and water shortages on the agricultural sector is particularly serious. Akplanta is working head-on to solve problems in the agricultural field based on its advanced research and development capabilities related to plant epigenetics. Since our last investment, Akuplanta has made
full-fledged moves toward expanding overseas, where there is a larger market, and we look forward to seeing Akplanta make further strides as it continues to take on the challenge of global expansion.
〇Comments from Kim Jong-myung, President and CEO of Akplanta Based on our mission to “survive climate change together,” we at Acplanta have decided to open the Universal Materials Incubator to deploy our technology around the world as a concrete measure to protect food and the environment in regions suffering from “global boiling.” We have raised Series A funding from IT Farm Co., Ltd., Norinchukin Innovation Fund. With this procurement as a catalyst, we will proceed with demonstration testing and expansion of the technology in the United States, where damage from droughts and heat waves are common, with an eye toward global expansion. Akplanta will work as a team and strive to solve global issues caused by climate change.
〇About Akplanta Co., Ltd.
Our company is an agri-bio startup that develops biostimulant materials that protect plants from various environmental stresses, with the mission of “Greenfulness – Surviving climate change together.” Biostimulant materials utilize the natural power inherent in plants and their surrounding environment to positively affect plants in terms of stress tolerance, yield and quality, post-harvest condition, storage, etc. A group of materials that provide The number of users is rapidly increasing around the world, mainly in Europe and the United States, against the backdrop of the effects of climate change in the agricultural field and growing awareness of reducing pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Currently, our company is based on the mechanism that “acetic acid increases the desiccation tolerance of plants” (Figure 1), which our founder Kim Jong-myung discovered through research on environmental stress and epigenetics* in plants when he was a researcher at RIKEN. We are selling the developed biostimulant material “Skeepon series”. By administering Skeepon to plants, the plants themselves can increase their tolerance to drought and high temperatures, maintain growth even in harsh environments, and reduce plant loss. (Figure 2) We started sales in Japan in 2019, and are mainly used by farmers and golf courses across the country.
*Epigenetics: A system that controls and transmits gene expression without changes in DNA sequence, and its academic field.
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Figure 1: Mechanisms related to plant drought tolerance and acetic acid
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Figure 2: Test case at a broccoli farm in Hokkaido in summer 2021 Through the development of biostimulant materials and research and development in the plant field, our company aims to solve global food problems such as damage to plant resource production caused by abnormal weather, hunger, and malnutrition. Masu. In addition, by contributing to environmental conservation through desert greening and forest restoration, efficient use of natural resources through water conservation, and reduction of plant production and management costs, we aim to create an earth where people all over the world can continue to live a fulfilling life. We will continue our activities.
〇Recruitment information
As our business expands, we are recruiting for multiple positions. For more information, please visit our recruitment page and Wantedly. Recruitment page: https://ac-planta.com/entry_info/Wantedly: https://www.wantedly.com/companies/company_6921401
[Human resources sought]
・Those who want to spread Japanese technology and products to the world and contribute to the creation of a foundation for stable supply of agricultural products under climate change. ・Those who want to promote the social implementation of research results in the agricultural and chemical fields. ・Those who want to work in a flat, international environment. Those who can communicate effectively [Recruitment type]
・Corporate Planning Manager: CSO/CFO candidate who will be entrusted with formulating company-wide management strategies and building an operational system. A person who can think and act in a way that not only leads management strategy, but also handles functions both internally and externally, such as promoting the commercialization of research seeds and communicating with investors.
・Research Director: A manager who leads the research team. A person who can supervise research based on management strategy and
consistently produce high-quality research results. Experience in managing a product development team at an agrochemical or chemical manufacturer is desirable.
・Overseas Business Manager: Responsible for new business development in overseas markets centered on the United States. A person who has experience in overseas business development, has the ability to plan and execute plans, and can be entrusted with building alliances and various negotiations with overseas partners.
〇Introduction of the management team
・Representative Director and President Kim Jong-myung
After graduating from the Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, obtained a degree (PhD: Bioscience) from the National Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara. While conducting DNA replication research using yeast, he discovered an amino acid metabolic pathway essential for mitochondrial maintenance (doctoral thesis). After that, he engaged in epigenetics research using yeast at the UCLA Molecular Biology Laboratory. After returning to Japan, he became a researcher at the RIKEN Plant Science Research Center. In the field of plant research, he pioneered a field of research that links environmental stress and epigenetics.
The results of this research revealed that all plants use acetic acid to become resistant to environmental stress. In order to promptly implement research results in society and solve the world’s food and environmental problems caused by global warming, he established Akplanta Co., Ltd. and assumed the position of CEO, Representative Director, and President. Concurrently serves as a specially appointed associate professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo.
・Director and COO Takashi Nakasaka
While studying forest fires in Mongolia while studying at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Environmental Science, he witnessed the deep relationship between environmental issues and society, which led him to question what a sustainable society is. From that experience, I wanted to solve social issues through business, and after graduating from graduate school, I worked for a general trading company for three years.
Believing that in order to create the business he was aiming for, he needed expertise and global colleagues, so after working as a live-in farmer at an organic farm in Japan for about a year, he earned a master’s degree in Organic Agriculture from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. During an internship while attending school, he worked at the IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) Ghana office to promote bio-innoculants.
After that, after working in international development and smart agriculture, he joined Akplanta as COO in order to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society around the world.
〇Company overview
Company name: Akplanta Co., Ltd.
Representative: President and CEO Kim Jong-myung
Address: 3F Chidori Building, 2-16-9 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0034 Established: February 7, 2018
Contact: info@ac-planta.com / 03-4405-1625
Business details: Research and development, manufacturing, and sales of biostimulants that are resistant to dryness, high temperature, and salt damage.
HP: https://ac-planta.com/
This article has been partially generated with the assistance of AI.