William Pelton and Nicolas Kral had a vision to making agriculture more sustainable. After studying together at Imperial College London for their PhDs, they joined forces to develop a technology that speeds up the process of building the next generation of crops that are more nutritious and sustainable.
Phytoform
- Leadership
- Dr. William Pelton, Dr. Nicolas Kral
- Location
- Harpenden, UK and Somerville, MA
- Sector
- Biology, ClimateTech
- Year Invested
- 2021
- Status
- Private
A shocking 30% of the food produced for human consumption is wasted somewhere along the supply chain.
When we met Will and Nick, we were immediately impressed with their knowledge of the agriculture industry, passion for building a more sustainable food system, and technical expertise in plant sciences and genome editing. One of the first projects where they demonstrated their technology was to develop a trait that reduces bruising in potatoes, which occurs from mechanical stress during harvest and transport. Due to high food standards in the Western world, bruised potatoes are discarded, which equates to a loss of 10% of the fresh potato harvest in the US. Will and Nick introduced a new trait to eliminate this bruising in potatoes to mitigate supply chain waste.
We partnered with seed and specialist funds to invest in Phytoform’s Series Seed round. With the funding, the company is working on developing additional traits in tomatoes and alternative plant proteins. As Phytoform continues to grow, it remains committed to getting sustainable crops into the field in a way that is commercially viable while minimizing damage to the environment.