Tropic raises £78.6m Series C to scale gene-edited banana and rice production
This article covers Tropic, an agtech startup, which has closed a series C funding round of £78.6m ($105m) to scale up commercial production of its gene-edited banana and rice varieties and to accelerate development of additional climate-resilient crops. The financing is intended to expand production and supply chains and to support growers, exporters and retailers by reducing spoilage and enabling wider commercial deployment of disease-resilient and extended-shelf-life varieties.
Tropic, a Norwich-based agtech startup, has closed a series C funding round of £78.6m ($105m) to scale commercial production of its gene-edited banana and rice varieties and accelerate development of additional climate-resilient crops. The cash injection comes as demand for Tropic’s first commercial banana varieties — including a non-browning type and an extended-shelf-life variety — already outstrips supply, and as the company moves to expand global production and supply chains.
Why it matters
The financing underlines commercial momentum for gene-edited crops beyond the research stage. Tropic’s launches in 2025 were the first new banana varieties in more than 75 years, and the company says its extended-shelf-life banana adds roughly 12 days of green life while its non-browning variety was named one of TIME magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025. Those traits can open new export routes, reduce spoilage and lower transport waste by up to 50 percent — outcomes that matter to exporters, retailers and growers.
At the same time, the company is advancing resistance traits for Panama Disease (TR4), a fast-spreading pathogen present in more than 20 countries that threatens an industry the company values at about £18.7bn. Scaling production of disease-resilient and longer-lasting varieties is therefore both an economic and a food-security play.
Inside the product
Tropic’s commercial portfolio currently centres on banana and rice. Its 2025 banana launches include:
- a non-browning variety that attracted media recognition, and
- an extended-shelf-life variety that increases green life by about 12 days, which the company says can boost field yields and reduce transportation losses.
On disease resistance, Tropic advanced its TR4 programme in 2025 by shipping plants to establish a mother plantation, a step the company says supports commercial deployment from 2027. The Series C will also be used to accelerate the banana pipeline for traits such as TR4 and Black Sigatoka resistance, expand the rice portfolio and explore additional crops described as climate-resilient.
Who are the investors?
The round, described as oversubscribed, was co-led by Forbion via its Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva through its Corteva Catalyst platform. Significant participation came from Just Climate and IQ Capital, with new investors ABN Amro and Invest International joining, and existing backers Temasek, Five Seasons Ventures, Aliment Capital, Sucden Ventures, Genoa Ventures and Polaris Partners also participating.
As part of the financing, Joy Faucher, General Partner at Forbion; Tom Greene, Senior Director at Corteva; and Siddarth Shrikanth, Director at Just Climate, will join Tropic’s board of directors. Gustavo Bassetti, Rob Scott, Onno van de Stolpe and Alex Wilson will join as board observers.
Investors framed their support around market need and Tropic’s commercial progress. In the announcement, Joy Faucher, General Partner at Forbion, said:
Tropic is an exemplary case of how advanced biotechnology can be applied with precision to challenges in planetary health, starting with banana and rice. Escalating disease pressure, limited innovation and a lack of cost-effective solutions are driving a growing environmental and supply chain risk in our food systems. Tropic has proven its leading position in addressing these threats by bringing its innovative technology to market and providing durable, scalable and resilient solutions to growers. We are proud to partner with an exceptional management team and a like-minded syndicate as Tropic scales commercially and builds a globally leading, category-defining seeds platform.
In the announcement, Tom Greene, Senior Director at Corteva, said:
Tropic’s non-browning banana varieties are a promising example of how the agriculture industry is leveraging innovation to deliver new and improved choices for farmers and consumers worldwide. We’re thrilled to support Tropic as we continue to advance our global portfolio of next-generation solutions to help farmers produce more food and feed, sustainably.
In the announcement, Siddarth Shrikanth, Director, Natural Climate Solutions at Just Climate, said:
Agriculture drives the majority of nature loss, and waste across food value chains is a meaningful contributor to global carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Based on a decade of breakthrough research, Tropic has developed crop varieties that are disease-resistant, higher-yielding, and hardier in transit to tackle the environmental footprint of our food system at its source. With the technology proven and the first products in market, the company is now at an inflection point. As growth investors supporting the commercial scale-up of transformative nature solutions, we look forward to partnering with the Tropic team and our co-investors to bring their resilient, sustainable tropical crops to growers worldwide.
In the announcement, Alex Wilson, Partner at IQ Capital, said:
Tropic is exactly the kind of company we look to back at IQC – deep technology solving a massive real-world problem. Tropic’s gene-editing platform addresses crops that have been essentially unimprovable through conventional breeding, and the results speak for themselves: two banana varieties launched, with strong demand from growers and exporters fuelling significant revenue growth. With TR4 posing an existential threat to a £18.7bn ($25bn) industry, the urgency behind Tropic’s pipeline is only growing. We are delighted to be supporting Gilad and the team as they scale globally.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Gilad Gershon, CEO of Tropic, said:
This funding is a powerful endorsement of our team’s ability to bring breakthrough products to the hands of growers, exporters and consumers around the world. We are entering a new era, one where gene‑edited crops will significantly enhance food security and sustainability.
2025 proved that our technology delivers – not in the distant future, but right now. With two banana varieties already on the market and demand outstripping supply, this investment enables us to scale global production and expand into new crops faster than ever before. We are excited to be partnering with our new investors as we progress our mission to build a world leading tropical seeds company.
Gershon’s remarks emphasise commercialisation and scaling rather than further discovery work; the funding is being pitched largely as an industrialisation and go-to-market round to meet existing orders and expand capacity.
The bigger picture
The deal is notable for pairing specialist bioeconomy investors with a major agriscience corporate investor. Corteva’s participation aligns strategic corporate know-how around seed multiplication and distribution with venture capital that focuses on biotech and climate-related nature solutions. That mix is increasingly common in late-stage agtech financings where scaling biological products requires both capital and operational partnerships.
For the UK ecosystem, Tropic’s Norwich base and large series C show that high-capital, biology-driven agtech companies can attract substantial follow-on funding at home. For European markets, the company’s focus on exportable traits and partnerships suggests ambitions beyond the UK, particularly where post-harvest losses and disease pressures constrain trade.
This funding round therefore sits at the intersection of scientific progress, corporate collaboration and commercial scaling — a pattern likely to repeat as gene-edited crops move from trials into supply chains across the UK, Europe and global markets.
They've invested in Tropic
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