Tropic Biosciences, a Norwich-based gene-editing company focused on tropical crops, closed an oversubscribed $105m Series C co-led by Forbion and Corteva Catalyst 1. Temasek, Just Climate, and IQ Capital also participated. The round is one of the few large UK deep-tech raises located outside the London, Oxford, and Cambridge corridor.
Tropic works on gene-editing staple crops (bananas, coffee, rice) for disease resistance and yield improvement. The investor mix reflects the company's position at the intersection of food security and biotechnology: Corteva is a global agricultural sciences company, Temasek is Singapore's sovereign wealth fund with a strong food security mandate, and Just Climate focuses on climate-positive investment.
Norwich's presence in the round is notable. The city hosts the John Innes Centre and the Earlham Institute, two of the UK's strongest plant and genomic science institutions, but the region has not historically attracted venture capital at this scale. Tropic's success suggests that deep-tech companies rooted in genuine research clusters can raise internationally even without a London address, provided the science is strong and the commercial application (food supply resilience) has a clear global buyer.