Ponderosa Ventures

We are thrilled to officially announce the results from our India field trials of?Phytalix? against the devestating Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB) disease. ?? The results speak for themselves: ??83% BLB reduction?– outperforming current solutions by 20% ??30% higher yields?in high-disease areas ??100% compatibility?with existing farming practices Rice feeds?half the world, but Bacterial Leaf Blight threatens up to?70% of yields?in severe outbreaks. Until now, farmers have had limited options to fight this devastating disease - often resorting to toxic chemicals or antibiotics. Our flagship biofungicide Phytalix? changes the game?with a?non-toxic solution?that?outperforms existing treatments?and boosts yields by up to?2 tons per hectare. This means?higher productivity, fewer losses, and a healthier, more sustainable future for rice farmers and global food security. With regulatory approval underway in key markets,?we're ready to scale Phytalix to transform the future of agriculture. ?? Read more in our exclusive coverage in Forbes by Daphne Ewing-Chow and on our website (linked below). Jay Farmer Gabriel Wilmoth #Agriculture #Innovation #FoodSecurity #SustainableFarming #Biologicals #RiceFarming

?? Breaking News: Boomitra’s First Verra-Registered Soil Carbon Project! Our flagship project, Grassland Restoration in Northern Mexico, is now one of the?largest soil carbon projects registered under Verra’s rigorous VM0042 methodology. ? ??? This is the first-ever Verra project to use remote sensing for soil carbon measurement, making carbon finance more accessible and scalable for ranchers in the Global South. By restoring degraded lands and improving grazing practices, this project drives measurable carbon sequestration while strengthening local livelihoods and ecosystems. ? A huge thank you to our partners, dedicated ranchers, and carbon credit buyers making grassland restoration and soil carbon sequestration possible. This is just the beginning—more impact to come! ? ?? Learn about this milestone: https://lnkd.in/gjkHWrvb

A flurry of startups has sprung up in recent years using fermentation to produce more sustainable, functional, or healthier alternatives to animal and tropical fats. Right now, most of them are feeding their microbes sugars, which are not cheap, use up agricultural land, and present?challenges if you want to operate a continuous fermentation process, says Dr. Shannon Nangle, cofounder at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based?Circe . Nangle, by contrast, is feeding her microbes carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen in a gas fermentation process completely decoupled from agriculture. And at scale, she claims, it could produce tailored fats that are cost competitive with dairy fats, cocoa butter and palm kernel oil. AgFunder #foodtech #gasfermentation #fermentation #precisionfermentation #fats Shannon Nangle

Great piece by Amy Feldman at Forbes today about our work at Dalan Animal Health, Inc. to protect bees and the early results we've seen using our technology to protect shrimp from some of the most devastating diseases they face. Neither of these animals have had good solutions to protect them against disease. As a result farmers spend billions of dollars every year trying to do what they can and cope with massive losses. Losses don't just hurt the farmers. They also result in wasted emissions to grow feed for animals that end up dying or for power and fuel for farms. Most antibiotics are used in farm animals, not people. Shrimp and bees are no exception. We all pay the price. Literally, because losses drive food prices up, but also in the form of externalities like climate change and antimicrobial resistance. My colleague Morgan Halme started using the phrase, "Healthy Animals. Healthy Planet" internally and on our website and it's true. Animal health, planetary health, and human health are linked and effective vaccines are as close to a silver bullet as we've found. https://lnkd.in/ejHD9-FM

Today, we’re excited to officially launch Terradot with $58.2M in funding! We’re transforming Earth’s most powerful natural carbon removal process—silicate rock weathering—into a scalable climate solution through Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW). ?? Why we’re excited: $58.2M in funding led by John Doerr, joined by Sheryl Sandberg & Tom Bernthal, George Roberts, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Google, Cisco Foundation, Kleiner Perkins, Floodgate, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital Group, Ponderosa Ventures and others. Nearly 300,000 tonnes of carbon removal sold, including a $27M purchase by Stripe's Frontier Climate buyers for 90,000 tonnes and Frontier member Google’s largest-ever single CDR purchase—200,000 tonnes. Starting in Brazil, an optimal location thanks to its tropical climate, agricultural scale, and clean energy grid. We believe ERW has the greatest potential to deliver gigaton-scale, permanent carbon removal this decade. But achieving that potential will be far harder than most realize. That’s why we built Terradot: to advance the hard science and build the technology required to activate the thousands of existing silicate rock quarries worldwide into scalable CDR hubs. Backed by the world’s strongest coalition—spanning industry, academia, and government—we’re taking a bold bet on unlocking ERW’s massive potential. The road ahead won’t be easy: millions of soil samples, snake-filled fields, and no guarantees of success await. The stakes couldn’t be higher. ?? This is just the beginning. If you’re a scientist pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, an engineer ready to build, or an operator obsessed with execution—come join us. Let’s work together to stabilize Earth’s climate. ?? Join Us: https://lnkd.in/gm-7gCEf ?? Google’s Blog Post: https://lnkd.in/grVPg65J ?? Frontier’s Blog Post: https://lnkd.in/gG--y6xn ?? Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/gHBMqsb2 ?? Brazil Coverage: https://lnkd.in/gjBQS6rQ #ClimateTech #CarbonRemoval #EnhancedRockWeathering #Terradot #ClimateSolutions #CDR

We’re excited to announce that Cerve has successfully raised a ￡3.5M Seed Round, led by SuperSeed and joined by Zenith Ventures, Ponderosa Ventures, and The First Thirty. When we started Cerve, we saw first-hand how fragmented, inefficient, and disconnected data exchange was in the food industry. There was no standardisation, no digital connection between platforms, and a glaring lack of real-time solutions. These challenges weren’t just operational – they were standing in the way of solving some of the world’s most pressing issues, including food waste and food security. Today, over one-third of all food produced globally is wasted, and that staggering statistic has remained unchanged for over a decade. Much of this is due to insufficient visibility and traceability across supply chains. Without standardised, accurate, and real-time data, visionaries, innovators, and disruptors are constrained in their ability to develop solutions quickly, cost-effectively, and at scale. Cerve exists to change this. Our infrastructure and API provide the data standardisation and enrichment needed to empower organisations to create transformative solutions, applications and automations. By giving businesses access to rich and real-time data, we’re enabling them to address global challenges faster and with greater impact. This milestone wouldn’t be possible without the incredible team of passionate and talented individuals driving Cerve forward. In addition, special thanks to Paul Williamson, Andreas Lundgren, Ferdinand Reynolds, Elin Torstensson, Martin Heier, Evi Steyer, Antony Yousefian, Elsa Hyland and many others who share our vision for a digitally-enabled food system. Check out the Sky News exclusive by Mark Kleinman (link in the comments).