Much of the knowledge comes from Bayer's 2018 acquisition of Monsanto Co, which was partly funded by Singapore's state-owned investor. Unfold will be equally owned by both parties and headquartered in Davis, California with additional operations in Singapore. The startup is heavily recruiting while setting up labs for R&D.
The company will focus on lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, with seeds for some crops expected to be ready for sale within months. While genetically modified produce was a controversial flashpoint for Monsanto's agriculture business, Mr Purcell said they're largely unavailable in the vegetables business and Unfold doesn't plan to sell GMO seeds.
"Breeding now is nothing like it was 10, 15 years ago because we're able to do so much more" using computer-simulation techniques, he said. While some have put the market for vertical farming at US$50 billion globally, Mr Purcell said seed development is a smaller part of that. Unfold also plans to develop and sell the optimal techniques for vertical farming with its products, although it's yet to finalise how profits would be shared with other partners.
"Bayer and Temasek will have equal ownership of Unfold at the start, but this may change over time," a Temasek spokesperson said in an email."Unfold has the flexibility to seek investment from other companies in the future."BT is now on Telegram!
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