Molecular farming player Moolec Science – known for its pork-producing soybeans – has announced a merger with Argentina’s Bioceres Group and two other firms.
Luxembourg-based Moolec Science has agreed to merge with three companies, including Argentina’s Bioceres Group, the agtech firm it spun off from as a seed startup in 2020.
The NASDAQ-listed molecular farming company has entered a Business Combination Agreement with Bioceres, precision fermentation player Nutrecon, farm equipment manufacturer Gentle Tech, and their subsidiaries in an all-stock deal.
Expected to close in the second quarter of this year, the transaction will see Moolec become the parent company of these entities, and issue up to 87 million new shares and five million warrants to their shareholders.
Following the announcement, Moolec co-founder and CEO Gastón Paladini announced that he had stepped down from his role, pledging his continued “support and collaboration as a shareholder and as a founder”. The company has not yet named a successor.
“The need to accelerate agricultural innovation to address current and future challenges, such as enhancing on-farm profitability and reducing environmental impact, is increasingly evident,” said Federico Trucco, CEO of Bioceres Crop Solutions.
“Bioceres is enthusiastic to be part of a larger, more ambitious Moolec, one that expands its focus from science in food ingredients to a comprehensive ‘cradle-to-cradle’ approach.”
Merger marks ‘new stage’ for Moolec
Molecular farming enables the modification of plant cells to express animal proteins, which can be harvested from leaves or other plant tissues. It allows companies to scale up faster while keeping production costs low, since they’re using plants – not expensive bioreactors – as factories.
Research suggests it’s a market that could be worth $3.5B by 2029, and Moolec is one of the leaders in the space. It has already commercialised several innovations in the US, with three ingredients receiving regulatory clearance in the US in the last two years.
This includes a nutritionally rich GLASO safflower oil, Piggy Sooy (soybeans that contain pork proteins), and PEEA1 (peas that produce bovine myoglobin).
“Molecular farming, as exemplified by Moolec Science, offers a compelling solution to the challenge of balancing productivity and sustainability. For instance, what soybean yield technology can rival the direct production of 300kg of animal protein from a three-tonne-per-hectare crop?” Trucco pointed out.
The impending merger marks a “new stage” for Moolec, positioning it within a broader organisation with “synergies on multiple levels”, according to Moolec CFO José López Lecube.
“Becoming part of a larger organisation will enable cost efficiencies and significant revenue increase as well as product portfolio diversification. It will also enlarge our investor base, providing the company with new stakeholders who support Moolec’s new and more diversified business,” he said.
Once the deal is completed, Moolec said it would be “uniquely positioned” in the agricultural value chain, with a proposition centred around modifying seeds and microbes to change how we use land and water resources and enhance human health.
Merged entity recorded over $500M in sales in 2024
Moolec suggested that its technology discovery and development engine allows it to address multiple upstream and downstream needs in a cost-competitive way.
It will continue to develop its flagship molecular farming products, and will integrate Mycofood, the fungi protein technology developed by Nutrecon’s Eternal brand. Through Bioceres, it will now also offer upstream technologies for regenerative agriculture – a hot topic in the US – including biological inputs and climate-resilient seeds.
Moolec will offer R&D, contract manufacturing and regulatory services under brands controlled by Bioceres and Nutrecon Plus, it will expand its reach into emerging technologies for biomass and grain fermentation – especially for biomaterial production – as well as new concepts on equipment, integrating material science, electric mobility, and autonomy.
Finally, the merger is expected to result in “significant cost synergies” and create an integrated management structure. The combined entities will manage a portfolio of over 800 patents and 550 product registrations, together representing over half a billion dollars in sales in more than 50 countries in 2024.
Moolec – which raised $30M to fund R&D and scale-up efforts in 2023 – reported a revenue of $5.8M in 2024, compared to $1M the previous year, against a rise in operating losses to $9.3M. Its sales primarily came from the texturised soy protein flours developed by Valoraoy Food, a molecular farming startup Moolec acquired in 2023.
It’s a burgeoning space with a number of players growing everything from casein in soybeans to egg protein in potatoes. These include Alpine Bio, Mozza, Miruku, Tiamat Sciences, Bright Biotech, ORF Genetics, PoLoPo, and NewMoo are all innovating in this field.
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