Brightseed, an AI-based system, has developed an AI-based system called Forager to identify and categorize plant compounds for human health. The company recently raised a massive $68M Series B led by Temasek. This is a huge step forward for the company and will bring their research and development to the next level.
Let’s dive into this news and see what it has to offer.
Overview of Brightseed
Brightseed is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) innovation platform that has developed an AI-based system called Forager. The award-winning technology platform helps find the most nutritious plant-based food to improve human health and increase sustainability. Brightseed’s mission is to help the global population of about 7 billion people sustainably access nutritious diets, and is doing this by analyzing billions of data points from scientific research and studies.
The company’s technology suite includes four components: AI-driven plant science research, natural language processing, global crop cultivation analysis and health optimization for individuals, families and companies. With Forager’s assistance, organisations better understand their food goals, reducing waste due to overproduction or under consumption.
Brightseed recently announced that it has closed its Series B funding round at $68 million – becoming one of the first startups to close a venture capital (VC) funding round during Covid-19 pandemic – led by investment firms Temasek and Artis Ventures among other venture competitors such as Alpha Edison and Civitas Capital Group. The funding will further support Brightseed’s growth strategy while developing new products & services which will be powered using AI technologies including its proprietary algorithms.
Overview of Forager
Brightseed, an AI-powered ag-tech platform dedicated to discovering nature’s nutritional potency and powering preventive health, announced today a $68M Series B funding led by Temasek. This brings the total capital raised to over $102 Million since launch in 2017.
Forager is Brightseed’s first SaaS offering for the pharmaceutical industry that helps speed up the process of drug discovery using AI to evaluate small molecules from plants. By taking available data about compounds found in food and plants and helping compare it to existing compounds used in new drugs, Forager has changed the paradigm for drug development.
Founded by Mark Kimmel and Nazanin Mandimin, Brightseed is driven by a mission to discover potential ingredients that nature has perfected over billions of years that can power better human health outcomes preventatively. Brightseed wants to see a world where being proactive about preventive health through nutrition becomes routine care and where people don’t just take medicine when they get sick, but use nature’s pharmacopeia of superfoods before they get sick – unlocking access to personalized nutrition for everyone around the world.
Brightseed, which develops an AI-based system called Forager to identify and categorize plant compounds for human health, raises a $68M Series B led by Temasek (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)
Brightseed, a company that develops an AI-based system called Forager, has recently raised a $68M Series B round led by Temasek.
Forager is used to identify and categorize plant compounds that can benefit human health. This Series B funding will help Brightseed achieve its vision of creating a platform to develop plant-based medicines.
Look at the Series B funding and what it will bring to Brightseed.
Amount raised
Brightseed, the company developing an AI-based system called Forager to find novel bioactive compounds for agricultural and nutrition applications, has raised a $68 million Series B financing round, led by investment firm Temasek.
The round underscores Brightseed’s ambitions to build a business around its technology. The San Francisco-based startup was founded in 2018 by CEO Alex Newton and uses machine learning to help streamline the process of finding bioactive compounds in food grains.
This latest round brings Brightseed’s total funding up to $87 million. The company told TechCrunch it will use the new capital for research and development and expand its team across two continents — Europe and North America — as it continues building its platform. Additionally, some funds will be used for further testing demonstrations in agriculture research around natural compounds found in crops.
Lead investor
The AI-technology company Brightseed has just announced its successful completion of a $68 million Series B funding round, led by Singapore-based global investor Temasek, with participation from existing and new investors. This round brings the total investment Brightseed has received over the last two years to $90 million. Brightseed’s innovative approach to using data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to find molecules that may be effective for human health applications is building momentum for the startup and its industry.
The funds will be used to expand Brightseed’s ability to detect biologically active molecules safely across a wide range of ecosystems and create new products that can serve customers in multiple markets, such as therapeutic agents, food and beverage ingredients, agricultural chemicals, dietary supplements and natural products. It also provides additional resources for product development initiatives such as integrations with large partners.
Temasek serves as the lead investor on this financing round, including prominent venture capital organizations Accel Partners, Third Point Ventures, Vitruvian Partners and other major institutions such as Horizon Ventures. Adding these firms will allow the startup to continue its strong progress in product development, commercialization initiatives and partnerships worldwide.
Other investors
In addition to Temasek, other lead investors in Brightseed’s Series B funding included Real Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Other notable participants included Wild Arc Investments, DNX Ventures and the Crop Trust. Brightseed’s Series B financing brings its total funding to $87 million since June 2017.
Brightseed’s founding investor and board member Ryotaro Hatta remarked on the potential of Brightseed’s forager technology to play a significant role in protecting the food supply of future generations. “In particular,” he said, “forager is a critical tool needed to ensure global food security against increasing threats from Covid-19 pandemic and climate change shocks.”
The funds will be used by Brightseed to further develop its AI-tools which are designed to identify beneficial bioactive compounds that can then be tested for their efficacy against various human conditions. The company is also expanding its research programs by deepening collaborations with industry partners in the life sciences sector such as pharmaceutical companies, agricultural firms, nutraceutical companies and specialty food processors.
What Brightseed Will Do With The Funds
Brightseed, a startup which develops an AI-based system Called Forager to identify and categorize plant compounds, has raised a $68M Series B led by Temasek. As the company moves past this milestone in the funding cycle, reflecting on what it will do with the funds is exciting.
This article will explore how Brightseed will use the funds to drive their mission forward.
Expansion of Forager
Brightseed has stated that the proceeds of its $68M Series B funding round led by Temasek, with participation from GV (formerly Google Ventures), Tao Capital Partners, Finistere Ventures and SVB Capital, will be used to expand the development of Forager, its AI-based system that identifies naturally occurring health-promoting compounds in foods. This new investment brings Brightseed’s total capital raised to date to more than $100 million.
Forager is a patent-pending technology platform designed to help unlock the secrets in natural products for health and nutrition discovery. The platform uses advanced bioinformatics, machine learning and metabolic engineering techniques to identify thousands of natural compounds with demonstrated health benefits and characterize them for scale manufacturability.
The new funds will enable Brightseed’s team to further develop this innovative technology platform—which discovers nature’s most potent, safe and sustainable nutrients—and build production capabilities so companies can benefit from these metabolites at industrial scale. Additionally, the capital infusion will bolster investments in software engineering automation and R&D initiatives focusing on next-generation metabolite detection tools.
As part of its strategic expansion plans, Brightseed is also looking into developing a “Analyze Platform” — an AI consumer focused web experience enabling individuals wanting to learn more about their current nutritional habits and modify them accordingly where applicable with ingredients discovered by Forager.
Further development of AI-based system
Brightseed is the startup developing an AI-based system, Forager, to enable employees to quickly find insights and automate processes. With the $68 million Series B round led by Temasek, Brightseed will focus on further developing its AI-based system.
With the funds from this round, Brightseed will expand its capabilities and use cases of Forager and invest more in research. To enhance its data science capabilities, Brightseed will use the funding to hire more data scientists, automation engineers and software developers. This additional personnel will not stop at recruiting but will continue to receive training relative to their roles in continuing education or pursuing certification programs or industry-recognized best practices.
As with any new technology investment, there can be a long journey between ideation and implementation as novel issues arise that are difficult to anticipate or anticipate product iteration times that don’t fall within expected timelines. However, with dedicated product experts led by engineers at Brightseed, they aim to ensure that their user community gains the most benefit from Forager deployments that lead toward increased efficiencies for customers’ processes enabling process automation for eliminating manual steps providing intelligent recommendations for faster services.
Additionally, Temasek’s participation in this financing round implies confidence in Brightseed’s technological advancements and optimism about their future growth potential showing recognition from global investors who are leading world innovation today.
Impact of Series B Funding
The Series B funding of $68 million raised by Brightseed,which develops an AI-based system called Forager to identify and categorize plant compounds for human health, is a major milestone in the company’s journey. This funding round was led by the strategic investor Temasek, with participation from all existing investors.
The influx of capital will be used to expand the development of Forager and accelerate commercialization of its products.
Let’s examine the impact of this funding on the company’s growth further.
Benefits to Brightseed
Brightseed’s Series B funding round will allow them to increase their impact and presence in the market. Some of the key benefits of the new investment include:
• Increased ability to expand their reach to new markets and customers – The infusion of capital from their Series B funding round will enable Brightseed to swiftly deploy its AI-based system Forager into many new markets, allowing them to tap into a larger user base and drive more revenue.
• Developing new features for Forager – With the $68M invested, Brightseed can create more advanced features in its Forager AI system designed to quickly identify potential nutrient containing compounds that can be used in nutritional products, positive health outcomes, and other food/agriculture-related opportunities.
• Reinvest profits back into research & development – As Brightseed increases its customer base using its Series B funding, they can reinvest additional profits into expanding their capabilities with additional research and development initiatives that could lead to ground-breaking discoveries within the nutrition space. This reinvestment could lead them to uncover better products that deliver superior health benefits.
Overall, Temasek’s participation in Brightseed’s Series B fundraising round marks a crucial turning point for the company as it gears up for further global expansion. Through strategic capital deployment and reinvestment into R&D initiatives, this injection of funds may prove instrumental in further unlocking unique opportunities within the nutrition space leading to healthier lives for all.
Benefits to human health
Series B funding for Brightseed’s AI-based system, Forager, has yielded many beneficial impacts on human health. This new funding will enable the company to continue to develop and refine its mission-driven approach of using artificial intelligence to discover novel natural products that promote human health and wellbeing.
The Forager system is designed to detect novel molecules within plant species that promote nutrient absorption and immunity. By finding these compounds, Brightseed can identify potential health benefits they may have in humans and then use those compounds in new foods, supplements, and therapies.
The most immediate benefit of Brightseed’s Series B funding will be the additional resources available to continue expanding the breadth of plants studied by Forager and their associated beneficial molecules for human health. In addition, the capital obtained from this new financing will also help them accelerate their pipeline activities around successful discoveries from within their platform.
In the longer term, Brightseed’s mission could lead to an entirely new market for healthier food options with higher absorption of nutrients due to increased bioavailability that shines a brighter light on how humans interact with food or supplements in various ways ways unaware before.
Conclusion
Brightseed, a company that develops an AI-based system called Forager to identify and categorize plant compounds for human health, has raised a $68M Series B led by Temasek. This series B funding round is one of the largest AI-driven health investments to date and will help Brightseed further develop and expand its technology.
This article will unpack the implications of this investment and discuss what it means for the future of AI-driven health solutions.
Summary of Brightseed’s Series B funding
Brightseed, a San Francisco machine intelligence company that develops an AI-based system called Forager for discovering and analyzing the nutritional makeup of food and beverages, raised a $68 million Series B funding round.
Temasek, one of Singapore’s leading investment companies, led the round, with participation from existing investors including Andreesen Horowitz, Google Ventures, and the UBSO Venture Foundation.
The latest funding will enable Brightseed to extend its platform to more countries worldwide and expand its research capabilities to develop new plant-based products. It will also allow them to continue furthering their AI technology to uncover additional beneficial biochemical compounds in plants used as natural health ingredients.
With this infusion of capital, Brightseed strengthens its position as a leader in uncovering vital nutritional components in natural foods – ensuring that everyone can better understand what is most nutritious for their bodies.
Impact of the funding on Brightseed and human health
The Series B funding for Brightseed will help the company continue to build its AI-based systems designed to identify and develop compounds that affect human health from plant compounds. In addition, this Series B funding from Temasek and other investors will help Brightseed advance its research and development capabilities, both in vitro human and in vivo animal studies, in a rapidly expanding field to better understand how natural nutrition can impact our lives.
By leveraging AI to identify molecules that might benefit humans, it is now easier than ever for researchers to test simple molecules derived from plants. Additionally, the funds acquired through this Series B round of financing can be used by the company to expand its reach into the United States market. The additional resources will go towards testing their novel discoveries in larger scale trials and ushering their science further up the clinical discovery continuum.
This capital injection could potentially propel Brightseed into a world-leading position when discovering new plant-based products that impact human health by providing additional resources for research teams working on next-generation methodologies for clinical trials. Additionally, it could improve accessibility and affordability of natural products that have been clinically tested and validated for effectiveness on human health through advances in artificial intelligence technologies.
tags = Brightseed, develops an AI-based system, Forager, plant compounds for human health, raises a $68M, forager series temasekcoldeweytechcrunch, Temasek
