Loam Bio’s pitch to farmers is a two-part business model, and the second part is the one that gets procurement officers to listen. First, you coat your seeds with a proprietary microbial fungus. Second, you sell the carbon your crops sequester into the soil. The company’s bet is that the first part, a product called CarbonBuilder, will drive adoption for the second, a service called SecondCrop. It’s a classic land-and-expand motion, but the land in question is literal farmland, and the expansion is into a carbon credit market that is still figuring out its own unit economics.
Founded in 2019 in Australia, Loam Bio has raised over $100 million to commercialize its biological approach to soil carbon capture. The company’s core intellectual property is a seed-applied inoculum of endophytic fungi, which it says works with crop roots to move more carbon into the soil and stabilize it there. For enterprise buyers, the interesting part isn’t just the science. It’s the commercial wedge: a product that fits into existing planting operations without requiring farmers to change equipment or tillage practices [Loam Bio USA, Unknown].
A Biological Wedge Into Carbon Markets
The agricultural carbon credit space is crowded with modeling software, satellite monitoring, and practice-based protocols. Loam’s differentiation is a physical, biological input. CarbonBuilder is applied at planting, aiming to enhance a plant’s natural carbon sequestration process. The company claims this leads to more stable, long-term carbon storage, which in turn supports the issuance of higher-quality carbon credits through its SecondCrop program [Loam Bio, Unknown].
This creates a dual-value proposition. The farmer gets a potential yield boost from the microbial treatment,Loam cites trial data showing yield increases of over 10% for barley and over $100 per hectare for wheat [Loam Bio, Unknown] [Australasian Farmers' & Dealers' Journal, Unknown]. They also get a streamlined path to generating carbon credits, with Loam handling measurement, verification, and credit sales. The company’s stated goal is to build system resilience and new revenue streams without asking for major operational changes.
Funding and a Strategic CEO Pivot
Loam has assembled a substantial war chest to prove this model. Total disclosed funding is approximately $103 million, anchored by a $73 million Series B in February 2023 led by Lowercarbon Capital [CEFC, February 2023]. The investor list is a who’s who of climate-focused funds, including TIME Ventures (Marc Benioff’s fund), Horizons Ventures, and Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which has made multiple commitments totaling A$15 million [CEFC, Unknown] [AgFunderNews, October 2021].
A more telling signal for its enterprise scale-up came in mid-2026, when co-founder Guy Hudson transitioned to executive chairman and the board appointed Rob Hranac as CEO [Loam Bio, June 2026]. Hranac was described as having over a decade of senior leadership experience in US soil-carbon and agtech businesses. This hire looks like a classic playbook move: bringing in a domain-specific operator to lead the charge into the company’s most important new market, North America.
2020 Seed/Other | 10 | M USD
2021 Series A | 30 | M USD
2023 Series B | 73 | M USD
Traction and the Commercial Footprint
As of 2021, the company reported operations across four laboratories and field activity at 25 sites, with teams in both Australia and the United States [Startup Daily, October 2021]. More recent figures point to over 135 employees across four countries [Invest Regional NSW, Unknown]. The public traction metrics are primarily trial results, not commercial revenue or credit sales volumes. The company reports average carbon builds of 3-6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per hectare across barley, wheat, and pulse trials [Loam Bio, Unknown].
For a business model that hinges on carbon credit monetization, the absence of published credit issuance or farmer payout figures is a standard early-stage opacity. The model’s validation will come from repeat purchases of CarbonBuilder and the scale of the SecondCrop program. The recent leadership change suggests the next phase is about converting field trials into contracted acreage.
The Realistic Competitive Set
Loam Bio does not operate in a vacuum. Its competition is fragmented across two overlapping categories: biological inputs and carbon project platforms. A farmer evaluating Loam is likely weighing it against other options.
- Pure-play carbon platforms. Companies like Indigo Ag, Nori, and Gradable provide software and services to facilitate carbon projects, often based on practice changes like reduced tillage or cover cropping. Loam’s edge is its proprietary biological input, which it argues creates more permanent sequestration.
- Agricultural biologicals. This is a vast market including companies like Bayer, Corteva, and numerous startups selling microbial inoculants for yield and soil health. Loam’s differentiator is the direct link to carbon credit monetization, a revenue stream most biologicals don’t offer.
- In-house programs. Large food and agriculture corporations are developing their own insetting programs. Loam’s opportunity is to be the enabling technology provider for these programs, rather than competing with them head-on.
The ideal customer profile here is not a small family farm experimenting with a new input. It’s the large-scale row-crop operation in the US Corn Belt or the Australian wheat belt, managed by a professional agronomist who is actively evaluating carbon programs as a new profit center. This operation has the scale to make carbon credit revenue meaningful and the operational discipline to adhere to a measurement protocol. Loam is built for the farmer who wants to participate in carbon markets but isn’t willing to radically alter their proven production system.
Where the Model Gets Tested
The risks for Loam are execution risks, not science risks. The company has secured ample funding and strong belief from climate tech investors. The questions that remain are commercial.
- Credit integrity and price. The entire carbon farming economy depends on the credibility and price of credits. If corporate buyers balk at soil carbon methodologies or prices collapse, the SecondCrop revenue stream weakens considerably.
- Farmer adoption cycles. Selling to farmers is notoriously difficult and sales cycles are long. Convincing them to pay for an input based on a future, variable carbon credit payout is a complex value proposition.
- Scalable go-to-market. With a new US CEO, the obvious bet is on aggressive North American expansion. Building a direct sales and agronomy support team capable of covering the continent is a capital- and execution-intensive challenge.
The company’s answer to these risks appears to be its product-led wedge. By focusing first on the yield benefit of CarbonBuilder, it aims to get into the ground. The carbon credit becomes an incremental bonus, reducing the perceived risk for the farmer. It’s a pragmatic approach, but its success hinges on consistently delivering those agronomic results at scale.
The Next Twelve Months
The key milestones to watch will be commercial, not scientific. Look for announced partnerships with major agribusiness distributors or grain handlers, which would provide a leveraged sales channel. Quantified expansions of the SecondCrop program,in terms of enrolled acres or credits issued,will be a critical traction signal. Given its funding stage and new leadership, another capital raise within the next 18 months to fuel US expansion would not be a surprise.
Loam Bio has positioned itself at the intersection of two massive trends: the adoption of agricultural biologicals and the growth of voluntary carbon markets. Its bet is that a physical product provides a more durable moat than a software model alone. For the large-scale farm manager calculating input costs and potential new revenue lines, that’s a value proposition worth a closer look.
Sources
- [AgFunderNews, October 2021] Loam Bio, previously Soil Carbon Co, raises $30m | https://agfundernews.com/loam-bio-previously-soil-carbon-co-raises-30m
- [CEFC, Unknown] Loam Bio brings innovative biotech to soil carbon | https://www.cefc.com.au/case-studies/loam-bio-brings-innovative-biotech-to-soil-carbon/
- [CEFC, February 2023] CEFC increases investment in Loam Bio through a $105 million Series B round | https://www.cefc.com.au/media/media-release/cefc-increases-investment-in-loam-bio-through-a-105-million-series-b-round/
- [Startup Daily, October 2021] Climate change agritech Loam Bio raises $40 million in Series A | https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/climate-change-agritech-loam-bio-raises-40-million-in-series-a/
- [Loam Bio, Unknown] CarbonBuilder™ Inoculum: Build Soil Carbon & Boost Yields | https://www.loambio.com/products/carbonbuilder-inoculum/
- [Loam Bio USA, Unknown] Turn climate ambition into measurable, permanent carbon impact | https://www.loambio.com/us/
- [Loam Bio, June 2026] Loam Bio appoints Rob Hranac as CEO as company enters next phase of commercial growth | https://www.loambio.com/resources/loam-bio-appoints-rob-hranac-as-ceo-as-company-enters-next-phase-of-commercial-growth/
- [Australasian Farmers' & Dealers' Journal, Unknown] Loam Bio trial results | Not available
- [Invest Regional NSW, Unknown] Loam Bio company information | Not available