Here's why The Production Board raised $300 million to reimagine Earth

Today, I’m pleased to announce that The Production Board (TPB) has raised $300 million in new capital from leading financial and strategic institutions to help us deliver on our mission to Reimagine Earth.

Seven years ago, I began investing in and incubating businesses that leveraged discoveries in science and engineering to tackle some of the biggest problems in food, agriculture, and human health. In partnership with several institutional investors, we formed The Production Board in 2017 as a permanent-capital holding company.

We began investing in and building new businesses that we believed could deliver at least a 10x improvement in the cost, energy, time, and carbon footprint of traditional systems of production that make all the things that humans consume. Realizing these objectives means that we support businesses that aim to transform their target markets, have a world-changing, positive impact on the human footprint on Earth, and deliver significant economic returns.

Over the past few years, one key insight that has driven our activity is that many of the leading discoveries in science and engineering are failing to realize their full market potential. Most newly-founded businesses that seek to affect global systems of production fall short of “connecting the dots” across science, engineering, people, and markets.

As a result, we evolved our focus to actively building new businesses from scratch, taking advantage of our unique insights into the interplay of global systems of production and emerging discoveries in science and engineering, and bringing together the brightest minds in the world to work on those problems. The TPB foundry program now serves as our primary use of capital.

Our unique holding company structure affords us the flexibility to tackle some of the world’s hardest problems by building companies from the ground up, taking a very long-term investment outlook, and providing our operating teams the runway to be creative, aspirational, and risk-assuming.

Our founded businesses span all of the world’s systems of production, including food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, human health, and the broader applications of life sciences. When pursuing a new thesis, we typically conduct an active research program, bringing together the world’s leading experts in that field to demonstrate the feasibility or commercial potential of an opportunity. We then help those teams build standalone businesses, recruit leaders, provide core operating functions, and support their work with adequate capital to fulfill their market-transforming potential.

Examples of our founded businesses include:

PatternAg‍
Pattern envisions a future where conventional agricultural inputs are enhanced and eventually replaced by precision microbiome engineering to improve farm productivity and sustainability. Pattern uses metagenomic analytics to help farmers optimize their fertility and crop protection decisions, while improving the long term productivity of their land. The company has a significant microbiome research pipeline that we believe will transform how farmers make use of their land.

Uplifting Results Labs
Based on recent discoveries around the tremendous impact that our gut microbiome has on human health, UR Labs seeks to alleviate chronic health conditions with targeted gut microbiome-altering products, and unparalleled community support. The company’s flagship product, Muniq, is a daily meal replacement shake formulated to help those living with diabetes reduce blood sugar, insulin resistance, A1C levels, and lose weight by altering the gut microbiome.

Cana Technology
Cana envisions a world where global food and beverage supply chains are replaced by molecular printers at home and work that instantly make all of the things we want to consume. Cana is developing the world’s first molecular beverage printer, which gives consumers the convenience of making thousands of beverages, on-demand, for a fraction of the cost - all while reducing the water, carbon, energy, and economic waste of the $2 trillion global bottled beverage industry.

Ohalo Genetics
‍Leveraging recent discoveries in genomics, precision gene editing, and expression, Ohalo is reimagining the art and science of plant breeding. The company is delivering novel plant species for agriculture that use less land, water, and other resources to deliver better returns to growers, all while providing consumers with better choices. The company operates a sizable pipeline of programs with active commercial programs in the market.

Triplebar Bio
‍Triplebar’s technology eliminates a major barrier to the widespread adoption of synthetic biology programs - completing them quickly, inexpensively, and at scale. With a massive increase in performance relative to best-in-class synthetic biology programs, Triplebar is delivering on a reliable pipeline of novel molecules and production strains for food, pharma, healthcare, agricultural, and industrial bio applications.

Other TPB businesses and investments include:

Norquin, North America’s largest producer of Quinoa;
Clara Foods, the world’s first animal-free animal protein company;
Soylent, the lowest-cost complete nutrition consumer product company;
Culture Biosciences, provider of bioreactors-in-the-cloud to leading pharma, synthetic biology, and industrial biotechnology customers;
Tillable, a leading digital farmland real estate marketplace; and
Brightloom, a leading provider of consumer engagement solutions for retail brands.

While I am immensely proud of the work and outcomes delivered by our teams to date, we are still just beginning. Earlier this year we began seeking new partners to help us fund our work.

Today, I’m pleased to share that existing investors, including Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, Cascade, and Allen & Company LLC, join new investors, including Emerson Collective, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Foxhaven Asset Management and Arrowmark Partners, in providing us with $300 million in new capital to support our existing businesses and build new ones.

This is a meaningful moment for me. I have long held that humankind’s science and engineering capabilities should help us render solutions to our greatest global challenges. This new capital allows TPB to aggressively pursue that vision and reinvent the world's systems of production.

Our team at The Production Board and our extended leadership teams represent some of the most talented and passionate individuals that I have ever worked with. If our mission resonates with you, please find an ever-growing list of opportunities to join us at tpb.co/careers.

Together, we can Reimagine Earth.

Dave Friedberg

Founder and CEO,
The Production Board

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About The Production Board (www.tpb.co)

Founded by Dave Friedberg, The Production Board (TPB) is a holding company established to solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet, by reimagining global systems of production across food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, human health, and the broader life sciences. TPB builds new businesses from scratch based on emerging scientific discoveries, partners with exceptional talent, and provides them with the capital, infrastructure, and market insights needed to deliver at least a 10x improvement in the cost, energy, time, or carbon footprint of conventional systems. TPB is backed by leading strategic and financial investors, including Alphabet, Allen & Company LLC, Cascade, Emerson Collective, and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Baillie Gifford, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), Foxhaven Asset Management, and Arrowmark Partners. Learn more about our work at www.tpb.co.

For media inquiries please contact press@tpb.co.

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