Vive Crop Protection acquires US$26 million for precision ag chemistry platform

Vive Crop Protection of Toronto has announced the close of its USD $26 million Series C investment round. The round was led by Emmertech with participation from the Cibus funds, and existing investors Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Export Development Canada (EDC), and Urbana Corporation.

Vive Crop Protection has also secured debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) to provide both working and growth capital in support of their continued expansion.

“The investment by Emmertech, the Cibus funds, and existing investors, and the debt financing provided by Silicon Valley Bank underscores our success in delivering innovative solutions to farmers,” says Darren Anderson, CEO of Vive Crop Protection. “We’re extremely excited about how these new relationships will propel our business to the next level, including into global markets.”

Vive’s proprietary Allosperse technology is a nanoscale, polymer-based delivery system that improves the targeting and performance of both synthetic and biological active ingredients, enhancing farmers ROI and sustainability profile.

“Since 2018, our products are estimated to have saved farmers 34 million gallons of water, 189,000 gallons of fuel, and 15,000 hours of farm labor,” says Anderson. “In addition, feedback from our annual customer satisfaction survey has been overwhelmingly positive with 97 percent of respondents indicating their desire to re-use Vive products.”

Following Vive’s 2021 U.S. launch of AZterknot fungicide, sales opportunities in new crop segments have been significant. Registered across a broad spectrum of crops, AZterknot demonstrates Vive’s ability to more effectively deliver both biologicals and synthetic active ingredients in a single jug.

In its first full marketing season of 2022, AZterknot sales exceeded expectation with product use on more than 50,000 U.S. acres.

“AZterknot showcases our ability to deliver biologicals with proven chemistry,” says Anderson. “As the demand for biologicals increases, Allosperse will be an important technology for bringing more bio-based offerings to market.”