Business Roundup

BASF has made an investment of undisclosed size in the Indian start-up UrbanKisaan, a specialist in the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables and herbs in tropical urban environments. Created in 2017, UrbanKisaan operates several greenhouses and vertical indoor farms around Hyderabad and Bangalore, India.

Svante has won a $25 million investment from the Canadian government to help commercialize its solid-sorbent carbon-capture technology. Svante says the money will give it enough capital to build a commercial-scale manufacturing plant.

Innospec will spend $10 million to boost its capacity in Salisbury, North Carolina, for isethionate surfactants, biobased alternatives to sulfates for consumer goods. The firm completed other expansions and added rail service at the site earlier this year.

Vynova will spend more than $4 million to build what it says will be Europe’s largest liquid potassium carbonate plant. The plant will be at the firm’s site in Tessenderlo, Belgium, replacing a smaller facility there.

Haldor Topsoe plans to build a hydroprocessing catalyst plant with a capacity of 15,000 metric tons per year at its complex in Pasadena, Texas. Catalyst from the plant will be used in refineries to produce fuels as well as in facilities that make biodiesel and renewable jet fuel.

AstraZeneca will acquire exclusive rights to develop and commercialize inhibitors of STING (stimulator of interferon genes) from F-star Therapeutics as cancer therapies. The deal is worth up to $12 million up front and as much as $300 million in milestone payments.

Micropep Technologies has raised $10 million in series A funding to develop small peptides for control of weeds, including Palmer amaranth. The firm was spun off from the French National Center for Scientific Research and Toulouse University in 2016.

Muna Therapeutics has launched with $73 million in series A funding to develop therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. The Danish firm says it will use the funds to develop small molecules that repair neuronal dysfunction and restore neuroprotection.