Agronomics invests another $3.5m in Liberation Labs

Cellular agriculture investor Agronomics announced on Monday that, further its announcement on 20 October, it has invested an additional $3.5m in the $20m seed round of Liberation Labs - a “precision” fermentation contract manufacturer.

The AIM-traded firm said that in total, it invested $7m into the round, split over two tranches, with the prior investment of $3.5m made in October, and the new, second investment being called by Liberation Labs.

Joining this latest close was Thia Ventures - a prominent early-stage investor focusing on biotechnology, nutrition, and health.

In June, Agronomics invested $0.63m in Liberation Labs' initial round of financing.

Subject to audit, Agronomics' original investment, including the subscription, would be carried at $22.4m, including an unrealised gain of $14.8m.

The company said it would hold a total of 4.7 million ordinary shares and 2,134,147 seed preferred shares, with an equity stake of 37.4% on a fully-diluted basis.

It said the aggregate investment would account for about 11.3% of its 30 September net asset value, as adjusted for the uplift on the Liberation Labs position.

Liberation Labs would use the proceeds from the seed round to finalise its site selection, complete pre-construction engineering, order long-lead time equipment, and continue to build out its team.

The company further expected to begin the process of contracting fermentation capacity for its first facility, with an eye towards having that volume fully committed ahead of a planned 2024 operational launch.

“This further investment will support Liberation Labs in delivering precision fermentation and becoming a global leader in the alternative protein production space,” said Agronomics executive director Jim Mellon.

“It is hugely exciting for us to be involved with a leading precision fermentation company that was formed to address the ever-widening gap in fermentation capacity.

“Liberation Labs is developing state of the art purpose-built fermentation infrastructure which will replace the existing fermentation capacity being used today which was built for other purposes and does not fit the need of most precision fermentation proteins.”

At 1557 GMT, shares in Agronomics were down 2.86% at 13.6p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.