Agricultural Sciences and Technology

Cooley advised Sentera, a leading provider of remote imagery solutions for agriculture, on its acquisition by John Deere. Sentera’s industry-leading cameras are compatible with most major drone platforms, enabling farmers and crop scouts to quickly and efficiently capture high-resolution data at scale. The cameras’ capabilities and Sentera’s FieldAgent software tools help farmers and agronomists assess plant-level health, identify stressors and take action.

This acquisition will advance the capabilities of John Deere’s existing tech offerings, providing farmers and ag service providers with a more comprehensive set of tools to generate and use data to make decisions that improve farm profitability, efficiency and sustainability.

Cooley advised Decibel Bio, a plant biotechnology company building the world’s first crop epigenetic platform, on its $12 million financing round. The funding will be used to advance Decibel’s proprietary platform for both reading and writing the plant epigenome to create crop varieties with higher yield, efficiency and resilience to a changing environment.

Cooley advised Jord BioScience on its $7 million Series B financing round, including the intellectual property due diligence in connection with the deal. The funding round will accelerate Jord BioScience’s development and commercialization of its microbial technologies to deliver next-generation crop inputs.

Cooley advised California-based agricultural biotech growth company Pivot Bio on its $100 million Series C funding round, co-led by repeat investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures and a global investment company. Pivot Bio has raised $186 million to date and plans to use the funds to scale-up its microbial nitrogen technology that helps farmers boost crop yield and reduce reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The funding will also be used to help the company expand internationally. "The strong backing by our Series C investors enables Pivot Bio to redefine the future of fertilizer and provide the world's farmers with a new nitrogen source. Based on remarkable demand, we expect to ramp up from our large current footprint to millions of additional acres in the next growing season." said Karsten Temme, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Pivot Bio, in a news release.

Cooley secured a successful resolution for Charlotte’s Web, a leader in the hemp-based cannabidiol (CBD) industry, in a federal trademark and false advertising dispute with AAXLL Supply Co, owner of the Balance CBD brand, in the Northern District of California. Charlotte's Web filed a complaint against AAXLL on April 17, 2020 in which it alleged that AAXLL infringed Charlotte's Web's rights in its CHARLOTTE'S WEB trademark and had misrepresented that certain AAXLL products shared a terpene profile with hemp cultivars developed by Charlotte's Web. Under a stipulated judgment, AAXLL acknowledged that the CHARLOTTE'S WEB mark is a valid and protectable trademark, all rights, title and interest to which are owned by Charlotte’s Web. AAXLL further admitted to trademark infringement and also agreed to stop using the CHARLOTTE'S WEB trademark in connection with advertising and promoting CBD products.

Cooley advised Momofuku Goods, a brand of restaurant-grade pantry staples, on its $17.5 million Series A financing led by Siddhi Capital. The new funding will allow Momofuku to expand product offerings and support its growing operations, which includes scaling its team and marketing efforts.

“We spent a decade testing and developing our pantry essentials, ensuring that they were up to the standards we uphold in our restaurants,” David Chang, celebrity chef and founder of Momofuku restaurant group, said in a press statement. “With this investment, I’m looking forward to bringing even more flavor to home cooks’ kitchens.” Founded by the team behind Momofuku restaurants, Momofuku Goods offers a range of products, including chili crunch oil, air-dried noodles, soy sauce, rice vinegar and seasoned salts that are sold online and in more than 2,000 retail stores.

Winston Gu and Yvan-Claude Pierre led the Cooley team, which also included Len Jacoby, JP Oleksiuk, Jonathan Rivinus, Robert Eisenbach, Joyce Kim, Chris Chynoweth, Andrew Mettry, Bomin Kim and Noah Belsky.

Cooley advised AgroSpheres on its $22 million Series B financing and led intellectual property due diligence in connection with the round. Cooley counsels AgroSpheres with respect to corporate matters and is the architect behind development of the company’s ever-expanding patent portfolio.

AgroSpheres’ biomanufacturing platform enables cost-effective manufacturing and successful field application of novel biological modalities. The unprecedented field success of foliar-applied AgriCell-RNAi technologies has garnered significant industry interest.

“In this unprecedented bear market, food security, environmental footprint, and supply chain resilience are of paramount importance,” said Payam Pourtaheri, founder and CEO of AgroSpheres. “We are thankful for the support from our partners at Lewis & Clark, OAS, Bidra, and Cavallo, as we take significant strides towards our vision of a future built by nature’s technologies and bring our biobased technologies to partners globally.”

Cooley has served as primary IP counsel to Nobell Foods since its founding, helping the company to protect its innovative contributions aimed at making the world’s food systems more humane and sustainable. Nobell Foods is utilizing the power of plants to reimagine the world’s food supply and produce delicious cheese from plant-derived dairy proteins. The company recently completed a $75 million Series B in 2021 to help bring its vision to the world.