Business Roundup

Bayer and DuPont are investors in Radicle, a new investment fund dedicated to early-stage agriculture technology start-ups. The fund is raising $15 million to put into companies that increase agricultural productivity, sustainability, and quality.

Afton Chemical will build a petroleum additives plant at Bayer’s industrial park in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro by the middle of next year. The company says it has been boosting its presence in the Brazilian additives market since it purchased Texaco’s business in 1996.

Johnson Matthey is leading a three-year research project, supported by an $8 million grant from the European Union, to advance fuel-cell technology for electric vehicles. Partners include fuel-cell component suppliers, academic institutions, and carmaker BMW.

Urban Mining Co. has raised $25 million in a first round of venture funding from undisclosed investors. The company plans to use the money to build a rare-earth magnet recycling facility at its headquarters in Austin, Texas. Urban Mining says it can design reprocessed magnets to its customers’ specifications.

SiNode Systems, a Chicago-based battery materials start-up, has been awarded a $4 million contract by the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium, whose members include Ford Motor and General Motors. The funds support development of silicon-graphene anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Pfizer has selected Oracle to supply a cloud-based data management system for clinical trials. The system will be used to monitor more than 300 clinical trials per year, according to Oracle.

F2G has scored $60 million in financing to support the development of a new class of antifungal compounds called orotomides. The compounds can combat infections that are resistant to current antifungals. F2G’s backers include Novo, Aisling Capital, and Novartis Venture Fund.

Pfizer will spend $200 million to build a facility in Andover, Mass., that manufactures biologic drugs for clinical trials. The company says the five-story building will open in early 2019 and employ about 75 people. It will use new technologies including single-use bioreactors, Pfizer says.