Edison Agrosciences, an industrial biomaterials company leveraging crop agriculture and technology, has closed a $600,000 seed financing round. This investment was made possible by the support of current and new investors, including BioGenerator, Missouri Technology Corporation (MTC), Crisp & Company, LLC and others.

Edison Agrosciences is developing more sustainable, domestic sources of critical industrial materials, with a current focus on producing natural rubber from sunflowers.

Sunflower is an annual crop seen as especially attractive because of its short growing season, relatively low water requirements, and tolerance to stresses induced by both high and low temperatures. The deep root structure seeks out and captures residual nitrogen in the soil that other crops cannot reach, benefitting the plant and also reducing nitrogen leaching into water supplies. While most commercial sunflower production is currently in northern states, it also will fit into crop rotations in southern areas, including double-cropping. Agronomics for sunflower production have been refined over decades, allowing for large production areas in diverse environments.

Despite high demand, the United States lacks a domestic source of natural rubber. Presently, the global supply is sourced from a disease-susceptible tree species (Hevea brasiliensis, Brazilian rubber tree) grown primary in South and East Asia, with continued demand growth leading to further tropical deforestation.

Edison Agrosciences has identified a promising solution by developing and commercializing natural rubber from sunflowers, a crop already cultivated on approximately one million acres across the United States. US sunflower fields already have the potential to produce more than 25,000 tons of natural rubber annually; however, the current concentration of rubber in sunflowers is too low for economical extraction.

The company’s efforts are focused on increasing the concentration of rubber in each plant, thereby improving per-acre yield through advanced computational breeding and agronomic techniques.

The company’s seed financing will be used to advance research and development, including completing its third year of field trials, increasing production capabilities for customer product evaluation, and to develop further the supply chain infrastructure necessary to bring this innovative solution to market.