Pluton Biosciences just closed a $6.61 million seed round with support from a variety of angel and institutional investors that the new CEO says come from agtech, life science and sustainability – a diverse group that cover a wide swath of connections and expertise in product development.
Steven Slater, Pluton CEO
“This funding (goes to) automation and adding some additional folks to the team and it allows us to focus on developing some products that we have in the pipeline,” newly minted CEO Steven Slater told the 4thEst8. “And we’re adding capital equipment that’s going to make our laboratories far more efficient.”
Game of Thrones
Following Charlie Walch and Barry Goldman, Slater is the third CEO the company has claimed in as many years, prompting the 4thEst8 to ask “What’s up with that?!”
“We always felt Barry’s greatest value was as the CSO,” Walch said, adding that Goldman and Slater have worked together in the past, and Slater has been an active advisor at Pluton throughout.. but that he was brought aboard in April to help with this round. “He (Goldman) said ‘what about if we bring Steve in as the CEO, and you (Walch) handle the business, and I handle the science – which is what we always wanted to do.”
This round was led by Better Ventures of Oakland, CA with participation from First Ventures, The Yield Lab Institute, Wing Venture Capital, The Grantham Foundation, Neglected Climate Opportunities, and Fall Line Capital.
Money moves
This February the company was accepted into the Plug and Play Tech Center’s agtech accelerator, headquartered in Silicone Valley. On exiting the Illumina Accelerator, Pluton picked up two California angel investors, introduced through that accelerator. In mid-2020 the company was accepted into the IN2 Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator. That came with $250,000 in cash and technical research services at the Danforth Center in St. Louis.
At the start of 2020 Pluton acquired Inotech Laboratories in Maryland Heights, Mo. after Walch brought in 38 investors to raise nearly $850,000 in what PitchBook calls equity crowdfunding. Altogether, Walch says Pluton has raised a little over $8 million.
Pluton is a microbial testing and discovery company, focused on finding unique microbes to replace synthetic chemical applications in agriculture, using a technique they call bio-mining. The company was founded in 2017, has 15 employees and is headquartered in the Center for Emerging Technologies in the Cortex district of St. Louis.
