Aanika Biosciences Inc., a Brooklyn-based biotechnology company, is partnering with Greenlight Re Innovations, a unit of Greenlight Re, a Cayman Islands-based (re)insurer and strategic investor.

This transaction blends venture investing with insurance capacity to reflect the bleeding edge nature of Aanika’s business. The partnership will allow Aanika to grow its bio-backed insurance offerings.

“Finding an insurance carrier with a history of financing forward thinking technology companies, and that was nimble enough to find a creative solution for our atypical capital needs was challenging. Greenlight Re took the time to understand our technology and what we are trying to do. It’s a testament to their innovative mindset” said Vishaal Bhuyan, Founder and CEO of Aanika.

Aanika is using genetic engineering to create novel technologies that can improve food safety in the supply chain, which allows the company to offer customers food recall/contamination insurance that is less expensive, more efficient, and more comprehensive than competitive policies. Aanika uses its microbial tagging technology to mitigate the probability and magnitude of a claim and underwrite the risk on behalf of capacity providers. The company completed its first insurance transaction with Satur Farms, insuring tens of thousands of pounds of fresh produce. In addition, Aanika is developing novel antimicrobial peptides and biocontrol agents to further improve its suite of risk mitigation tools and insurance offerings.

Aanika is the only company sitting at the intersection of the genetic revolution and the insurance industry. The company plans to work with several other synthetic biology companies and academic labs to help commercialize their technology through Aanika’s insurance platform. “This is a trillion-dollar opportunity that could one day span agriculture, health, life and other lines of insurance,” said Vishaal Bhuyan.  

Aanika Biosciences was founded in 2018 in Brooklyn, New York and has attracted investors such as W11 Capital, SOSV, Draper Associates, Adit Ventures, Gaingels, Plug and Play Ventures, Alex Chung the founder of Giphy, and other angel investors. The company has a world-class scientific advisory board with leading researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute, Columbia, Weill Cornell, M.I.T, and the University of Miami.

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