Swedish climate-resilient crop developer OlsAro has raised €5 million in seed funding as it prepares to bring its first salinity-resilient wheat variety to market in 2027 and broaden its technology platform into new crops and climate-resilience traits.
The round was led by Industrifonden, with Nordic Foodtech VC joining as co-lead. Existing investors Future Food Fund, PINC, AgFunder and GU Ventures also participated.
Funding to support 2027 launch of first wheat product
The financing follows a €2.5 million pre-seed round raised in 2024, bringing total funding secured by the Gothenburg-based company to approximately €7.5 million.
The investment will support international field trials, commercialisation activities with seed company partners, further AI-driven trait discovery and expansion of the company’s intellectual property portfolio.
At the centre of the strategy is OlsAro’s first commercial product: a salinity-resilient wheat variety that has demonstrated yield increases of up to 41% over a moderately salt-tolerant comparator variety under saline growing conditions in Bangladesh.
The company’s lead wheat product is currently undergoing field trials in multiple markets ahead of a planned commercial launch in 2027.
Targeting one of agriculture’s fastest-growing threats
OlsAro is seeking to tackle a growing challenge facing cereal producers worldwide.
According to the company, salinity now affects around 10% of global cropland, while heat and drought continue to place increasing pressure on cereal production systems.
Its proprietary SeedAX platform combines genetics, AI-driven trait discovery and advanced breeding technologies to identify climate-resilience traits and integrate them into elite germplasm for commercial seed programmes.
“We have spent years proving that we can identify and develop genetics that perform under some of the conditions putting the greatest pressure on agriculture,” said CEO Elén Faxö.
“This round is about turning that capability into a platform seed companies can use repeatedly. By expanding SeedAX across more traits and markets, we can help our partners bring climate-resilient cereals to farmers faster and at much greater scale.”
Beyond salinity: drought and nitrogen efficiency next
While salt tolerance remains OlsAro’s most advanced programme, the company is now positioning SeedAX as a broader climate-resilience platform.
Speaking to AgNavigator, Faxö said drought tolerance and nitrogen-use efficiency have emerged as two key priorities for future development.
“Drought and nitrogen are two of the biggest limits on cereal yields worldwide, and both are getting worse,” she said.
“Farmers face less reliable rainfall, while fertiliser is costly and adds to emissions. Drought tolerance matters most in rain-fed systems in Africa, Australia, South America and the Mediterranean. Nitrogen-use efficiency helps farmers everywhere, from smallholders who can’t afford much fertiliser to European growers facing tighter environmental rules.”
Heat tolerance is expected to become the company’s next commercial trait after salinity resilience and is already undergoing field trials in several markets.
Over the next five years, OlsAro expects SeedAX to support a pipeline of climate-resilient cereals featuring traits for salinity, heat and drought tolerance, alongside nitrogen-use efficiency.
Rice expansion planned as platform scales
Having established proof of concept in wheat, OlsAro is also preparing to expand into additional cereal crops, with rice identified as the most immediate opportunity.
“Wheat is where we’ve proven our platform, and SeedAX is built to work across cereals,” said Faxö.
“Rice is a natural next step. It feeds more than half the world’s population, it’s highly exposed to salinity and heat, and much of what we’ve learned in wheat carries over directly.”
The company sees opportunities across Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas, arguing that salinity, heat stress, drought and fertiliser efficiency collectively impact most of the world’s cereal-growing regions.
Faxö added that scalability would ultimately be measured by the number of traits, partners and markets supported by the platform.
“For us, scalability means more traits, more partners and more markets, all growing at the same time. Over the coming five years, the clearest signs will be our varieties reaching farmers, new traits advancing through our pipeline, and a growing number of commercial collaborations with seed companies worldwide.”
Investors back multi-trait platform strategy
For lead investor Industrifonden, the appeal lies not only in OlsAro’s lead wheat product, but in the potential for SeedAX to become a broader crop genetics platform.
“What convinced us about OlsAro was the scientific work behind the company, together with its field-trial results and existing seed-company partnerships,” said Sara Frykstrand Ångström, investment manager and head of intelligence at Industrifonden.
“With SeedAX, OlsAro has the opportunity to turn this into a scalable platform for seed companies looking to develop climate-resilient varieties across multiple traits and markets.”
