$90M in funding to Durham startup will lead to gene-edited leafy greens

Zachery Eanes
·3 min read

N&O Innovation and Technology Newsletter: February 5, 2021

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Thanks to a Durham startup you might have more options in the produce aisle in the coming years.

Pairwise, a three-year-old company that uses CRISPR gene-editing tech on crops, said this week that it had raised $90M from investors in a Series B round.

That’s a huge amount of money for the young company that’s growing rapidly at its offices in downtown Durham and Research Triangle Park.

The company’s CEO Tom Adams gave us the rundown of how it plans to use the money and what gene-edited produce it will roll out in the next few years.

[Read more here]

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Igor Jablokov, now CEO and founder of Pryon, and formerly founder of Yap which was sold to Amazon and used in its Alexa smart speaker technology, stands for a portrait at the NC Museum of Art on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019, in Raleigh, NC.
Igor Jablokov, now CEO and founder of Pryon, and formerly founder of Yap which was sold to Amazon and used in its Alexa smart speaker technology, stands for a portrait at the NC Museum of Art on Friday, Aug. 2, 2019, in Raleigh, NC.

(It could be a big year for Igor Jablokov’s AI startup Pryon.)

Tech news from the Triangle

  • Epic Games will keep Dave & Buster’s around after it redevelops Cary Towne Center. [N&O]

  • Big year ahead for Raleigh AI startup Pryon as it releases its first virtual assistant to businesses. The expanding company will likely raise more capital this year. [N&O]

  • Durham may test its universal basic income project with formerly incarcerated individuals. [N&O]

  • Wake Tech becomes one of four schools in country offering Amazon robotics apprenticeship. [N&O]

  • NCBiotech Awards $1.4 Million in Grants, Loans to biotech startups. [NCBiotech]

  • Duke gives some COVID patients a choice: the hospital bed or their home bed. [N&O]

  • Less than two months after resigning his position at SAS Institute, Oliver Schabenberger has a new job. [TBJ]

What I’m reading

  • Apple and Hyundai-Kia moving closer to building an Apple Car. [CNBC]

  • Apple watches can track Parkinson’s Disease. [STAT]

  • Jeff Bezos walked through a one-way door and opened a new age for Amazon. [BBG]

  • Michael Regan rebuilt NC DEQ. Now he’s been asked to lead Joe Biden’s EPA. [N&O]

  • How the federal government could kill the highways it built? (Could have implications of something like the Durham Freeway.) [CityLab]

  • Amazon’s Northern Virginia campus has some … interesting architecture. [NBCWashington]

  • Uber buying alcohol delivery startup Drizly for $1.1B. [CNBC]

  • Google shuts down its video-game-development arm. [BBG]

Other Triangle business

  • Could Hurricanes leave PNC Arena for downtown Raleigh? [N&O]

  • A Raleigh home will no longer be a local landmark due to one-time owner’s racist past. [N&O]

  • NC will no longer issues license plates with Confederate Flag on them. [N&O]

  • NC luxury weight-loss center invites clients back with prospect of COVID vaccines. [N&O]

Let me know what you’re seeing. Email me at zeanes@newsobserver.com. Tweet me @zeanes. Call me at 919-829-4516.

Zachery Eanes is the Innovate Raleigh reporter for The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. He covers technology, startups and main street businesses, biotechnology, and education issues related to those areas.

This newsletter was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate