St. Louis ‘unicorn’ Benson Hill came out with its second quarter 2021 numbers last night.
Highlights:
- Consolidated revenues bumped 28% to $39.7M
- Contract acres for soybean varieties up 133% to (approx) 70K acres
- Launched new yellow pea breeding/commercialization program
- Gross profit was a loss of $0.1M due to non-recurring costs of $2.8M
- Reported net loss was $27.4M compared to a $12.7M loss in Q2 2020
- Adjusted EBITDA was a $15.8M loss compared to a $8.4M loss in Q2 2020
The company said in a release that losses are “largely in line with expectations.” In the release the company also says the proposed combination with Star Peak Corp II is expected to close during the third quarter of 2021.
Matt Crisp, Benson Hill CEO
Founded in 2012 by CEO Matthew Crisp and CTO Todd Mockler the St. Louis company combines machine learning and big data with plant breeding techniques to accelerate crop product development. This company is way too big to talk with the 4thEst8 but we reached out to Crisp, Mockler and one of their investors for comment in this article, and will update it if they return our call.
According to CrunchBase Benson Hill (NYSE: BHIL) raised a $150 million Series D round in the fall of 2020, led by Wheatsheaf Group Limited with participation from S2G Ventures, Prolog Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Mercury Fund, Louis Dreyfus Company, iSelect Fund, GV, GS Group and Fall Line Capital. The company raised a total of $282.3 million prior to going public this May in a SPAC merger with Magnetar Capital valued at $1.35 billion.
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