Pairwise is agriculture's plant CRISPR powerhouse

Mars, Incorporated has licensed Pairwise's Fulcrum® gene editing tools for cacao research and development. This licensing agreement grants Mars access to Pairwise's CRISPR tools, including the SHARC™ enzyme. The Pairwise Fulcrum™ platform encompasses gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential. This capability significantly accelerates the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods, allowing for the activation or deactivation of characteristics and fine-tuning traits, much like adjusting a dimmer switch to achieve optimal results.  

Mars aims to develop this advanced plant breeding technology to improve cacao production and effectively tackle agricultural challenges. The ultimate goal is to help address the pressures cacao faces globally from climate variability, plant diseases and environmental stresses. This strategic initiative underscores the potential of this technology to drive meaningful advancements in agriculture.  

"At Mars, we believe CRISPR has the potential to improve crops in ways that support and strengthen global supply chains," said Carl Jones, Plant Sciences Director at Mars. "Our focus is to transparently and responsibly conduct CRISPR research in plant science that helps crops better adapt to climate challenges, disease pressures and resource constraints."  

"We're pleased to provide Mars with access to our Fulcrum™ platform for their cacao research and development initiatives," said Ian Miller, Chief Operating Officer at Pairwise. "Plant breeding innovation has the potential to help address important agricultural challenges, and we look forward to supporting Mars' research goals."  

The Pairwise Fulcrum® platform includes gene editing tools, enzymes and trait libraries, enabling precise changes that unlock the plant’s inherent potential to greatly accelerate the development of impactful crop traits compared to traditional breeding methods.
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About Pairwise  

Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by the inventors of CRISPR, our Fulcrum™ Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops. As trusted partners to global industry leaders and nonprofit institutions, we help breeders move faster while transforming food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, NC, Pairwise is committed to delivering innovation that makes food easier to grow and better to eat. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.

Pairwise, a company pioneering genetics-based innovation in food and agriculture, has developed the world’s first seedless blackberry. Created using the company’s proprietary Fulcrum™ Platform, a complete suite of novel tools for CRISPR application in plants, this is the first time seedlessness has been achieved in any caneberry.

“We are thrilled to share this breakthrough achievement from our talented R&D team. Pairwise scientists have used their deep knowledge of plant genetics, broad suite of CRISPR tools, and multiplex editing techniques to eliminate the hard pits in berry fruit, creating soft, small seeds like those found in grapes and watermelon that are commonly labeled as seedless,” said Ryan Bartlett, Pairwise Chief Technology Officer. “The result is the first seedless blackberry in the world. We expect that this trait will not only transform the blackberry market, but it also lays the groundwork for accelerated progress in removing seeds and pits in many other fruits such as cherries.”

Recent innovations in produce have been rapidly adopted due to the significant benefits they provide consumers, such as improved flavor, consistency, and convenience.  

“The berry variety we edited is consistently sweet year-round and holds up well during shipment; now, consumers will have the option to choose a nutritious blackberry without seeds that also reliably delivers great flavor and quality,” said Haven Baker, Pairwise Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer. “Blackberries are a snackable fruit with significant health benefits; however, data indicates that more than 30% of berry buyers do not like the seeds, and many more do not even buy the fruit because of the seeds.”

In addition to creating the first seedless caneberry, Pairwise has successfully edited the same variety to eliminate thorns and create a more compact plant that delivers benefits for harvesters, growers, and the environment. The thornless and compact traits enable more efficient fruit harvesting and improved productivity and profitability for growers. The new compact trait means the plants are smaller and can be planted at a higher density per acre.

With the precision of CRISPR, we’re able to develop these thornless and compact traits without sacrificing consistency in flavor and quality for consumers,” said Baker. “We’re excited to advance these berries into the next phase of product development, including outdoor field trials, as we work toward scaling up and making them available to the public in a few years.”

“A key challenge in our food system is helping people eat more high-quality, healthy foods. As part of our drive to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables, we’re working to provide consumers with new, highly nutritious food options with improved flavor and convenience,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “With a deep understanding of the plant genome, an accurate, efficient, and scalable process, and streamlined pathway to commercialization, we are not only creating new products with our proprietary CRISPR technology, we are creating a new era of innovation in agriculture.”

Learn more about Pairwise and its proven Fulcrum Platform here.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of CRISPR technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture, technology, and consumer foods to harness the transformative potential of new genomics technologies to create innovative new products. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, and Temasek, Pairwise raised $90 million in a successful series B funding round in February 2021, bringing total fundraising to $115 million. The company was founded by Chief Executive Officer Tom Adams and Chief Business Officer Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.

Pairwise, a technology company pioneering gene editing to improve plant breeding in specialty and commodity crops, has closed a $40M Series C funding round led by Deerfield Management. Multiple returning investors, including Aliment Capital and Leaps by Bayer, are joined by new investor and global ag technology leader Corteva, Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), through its Corteva Catalyst platform, further signaling the promise and anticipated benefits of gene editing in agricultural applications.

Delivering Transformative Improvements in Food and Agriculture

Investments from this funding round will be used to scale Pairwise’s innovative product pipeline, including seedless berries and pitless cherries, as well as advance its industry-leading Fulcrum™ Platform. Pairwise’s new seedless blackberry variety, announced in June, will deliver an improved eating experience for consumers and, in concert with compact architecture and thornless traits, bring added benefits to farm workers, growers, and the environment as well.

“We started Pairwise in the early days of CRISPR to accelerate innovation across agriculture, enabling the cultivation of crops that are more adaptive to climate change, and more nutritious and convenient for consumers, all while bolstering grower economics,” said Tom Adams, Pairwise Co-Founder and CEO. “This new investment will enable us to expand the impact of our proprietary Fulcrum Platform as we continue to lead this transformation with our proven ability to deliver novel solutions that address the most pressing challenges in agriculture today.”

“Using their novel tools, Pairwise has delivered game-changing edits in plant varieties across consumer and big-acre crops in just a few short years,” said Cam Wheeler, Partner at Deerfield Management and Pairwise Chairman of the Board. “We believe that the precision, speed, and safety of gene editing is poised to transform agriculture, and our ongoing investment reflects our confidence in Pairwise as the clear leader in this space.”

Corteva Chief Technology and Digital Officer Sam Eathington said, “We view gene editing as a critical solution to drive climate resilience across agriculture and global food systems. Pairwise is an obvious choice for our investment to help accelerate innovation through gene editing in fruit, vegetables, and specialty crops. And as leaders in gene editing ourselves, Corteva’s ultimate aim is to work with Pairwise to unlock the impact of this technology to help solve climate challenges and produce the food, fiber and fuel required to meet the needs of a growing global population.”

In parallel to Corteva’s equity investment in Pairwise, the two companies have entered into a five-year joint venture collaboration that will focus on accelerating the pace of gene edited technologies and developing improved products that are more resilient to future climate conditions.

Corteva’s investment in Pairwise is being made through Corteva Catalyst, the company’s new investment and partnership platform launched to boost agricultural R&D and sustainable food production innovations.  

Trailblazing a New Era in Accelerated Innovation

Pairwise was founded by proven business leaders, preeminent experts, and inventors of early gene-editing technologies. Using industry-leading knowledge of plant genetics, a broad suite of CRISPR tools, and high-impact editing techniques like multiplexing, Pairwise has delivered multiple products with differentiated plant genetics across significant crops, including corn, soy, wheat, canola, leafy greens, blackberries, and more. As one of the only companies in this space to launch commercially viable products to date, Pairwise introduced the first CRISPR food to North America – a blend of superfood mustard greens that eat like lettuce, edited to dial down the wasabi-like pungency for people looking for healthier salad options than what are available in the marketplace today.  After laying the important commercial groundwork, the company entered into an exclusive product licensing agreement with Bayer to further develop and sell 10 varieties of Pairwise-edited greens at scale, and to develop and breed for new varieties with the technology. Additionally, after delivering 27 novel traits to Bayer’s pipeline under an initial five-year partnership, the two companies entered a second, multi-year collaboration to focus on developing a gene-edited version of short-stature corn to offer farmers better protection for their crops given improved sustainability in high winds and challenging weather conditions, better access during the season, and higher yields.

The Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform includes company-developed gene editing tools for cutting, base editing, and templated editing – a toolbox that enables not only turning a characteristic on or off, like removing a plant’s thorns to enable easier fruit harvesting, but also “tuning” it – like a dimmer switch to dial a trait up or down, such as creating a new type of corn with up to 20% more kernel rows. Using Pairwise’s novel editing tools, scientists can precisely tailor a wide range of genetic variation to develop new, distinctive plant varieties much faster and more effectively than through conventional breeding. In concert with its industry-leading tools, Pairwise’s intellectual property enables a straightforward path to product commercialization.

"Our technology licensing agreements provide secured IP and increase shareholder value. And our proprietary suite of technologies – our Fulcrum Platform – is enabling us to unlock transformative improvements in global agriculture,” added Adams. “Our product-development partnerships with global agriculture leaders, Corteva and Bayer, underscored by investments from both Corteva Catalyst and Leaps by Bayer, are an incredible validation of our technology and an important signal that gene editing will play a major role in improving agriculture innovation moving forward.”

Institutions interested in learning about Pairwise investment or licensing opportunities may contact the company at www.Pairwise.com.

About Pairwise:

Pairwise is pioneering the application of gene editing technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture and tech to harness transformative genomic technologies to create innovative new products that benefit society. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and large-acre crops, and to partner with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, Temasek, and Corteva Catalyst, Pairwise raised $40 million in a successful funding round in September 2024, bringing total fundraising to $155 million. The company was co-founded by the company’s CEO Dr. Tom Adams and agriculture innovator Dr. Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. For more information, visit Pairwise.com, and learn more about the differentiating Pairwise Fulcrum™ Platform here.