Business Roundup

Corteva Agriscience has hired Chuck Magro as its CEO. Magro led the Canadian fertilizer company Nutrien and its predecessor Agrium from 2014 to 2021. Corteva, a crop protection firm, will pay Nutrien $18.7 million to release Magro from contract restrictions.

Biosynth Carbosynth, a supplier of research products and reagents, will be acquired by the investment firm KKR for an undisclosed sum. Biosynth was formed in 2019 by the merger of Swiss and British companies; it has about $50 million in annual sales.

LG Chem is putting $375 million into a joint venture with Toray Industries to make separator film for lithium-ion batteries. The companies will expand film substrate facilities and install new coating facilities at Toray’s site in Hungary.

Evonik Industries will purchase the plant extract producer Botanica to enhance its catalog of active ingredients for personal care products. Botanica, based in Switzerland, employs 43 people and extracts natural products from roughly 1,000 different plants.

Nouryon is expanding production capacity in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for its Levasil brand of colloidal silica. The silica is used in construction and packaging, among other applications.

Evrnu has raised $15 million in series B funding for its chemical-based fiber recycling technology, NuCycl. The climate-focused private equity firm FullCycle Climate Partners led the round. Evrnu was one of C&EN’s 10 Start-Ups to Watch in 2020.

Shiru, a start-up that uses machine learning and fermentation to discover plant-based ingredients for food companies, has raised $17 million in series A financing. The company, which will begin scaling up manufacturing next year, will use the funding to double its workforce.

Merck KGaA is expanding antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) manufacturing services in Saint Louis, enabling large-scale production and purification for early-phase clinical supply. The firm also debuted technology aimed at addressing hydrophobicity problems in the development of ADC drug candidates.