Robigo secures Series A led by Leaps by Bayer, eyes $10B market

Robigo, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, closed a Series A funding round led by Bayer’s venture arm, Leaps by Bayer, with participation from Illumina Ventures, SVG Thrive, Congruent Ventures and Endeavor8, the companies said. The round’s dollar amount was not disclosed.

The funding will accelerate commercial launch of two engineered microbial biopesticides built on Robigo’s ARGO platform: one targeting Sudden Death Syndrome in soybeans, which Robigo said matches the performance of commercial chemistries at half the cost and is targeting a 2028 launch, and a second product against fusarium wilt in lettuce and berries that increased yields threefold over untreated controls in trials, targeting 2029. Sudden Death Syndrome alone causes an estimated $200 million to $500 million in annual losses for U.S. soybean farmers, according to the company.

Robigo said its ARGO platform cuts new-product development from an industry-standard three to five years to under 20 months, and the funding will also expand its pipeline into additional soil-borne pathogens across an addressable market the company estimates at $10 billion. Founder and CEO Andee Wallace said the products are designed to be simple for growers to integrate into existing operations rather than requiring a trade-off between performance and cost, joining a wave of venture investment in engineered biologicals such as Renaissance Bioscience’s RNAi biopesticide delivery platform.