Grace Breeding Reports 2022 Full-Year Financial Results

– Program developments throughout 2022, and, to date in 2023, bring Grace Breeding closer to offering crop solutions to farmers aligned with environmental responsibility and reversing climate change –

REHOVOT, Israel, March 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Grace Breeding Ltd. (the “Company” or “Grace Breeding”) (TASE: GRAC), a forward-thinking AgClimateTech company developing biological-based products to improve crop yield and vigor today reported full-year financial results for the period ending December 31, 2022. 

“In 2022 just after taking the company public, and so far in 2023, we have made great strides to advance our NFT and WDS programs in parallel, bringing us closer towards our goal to sustainably address upstream and downstream solutions for the crop life cycle,” stated Assaf Dotan, Chief Executive Officer of Grace Breeding. “Most notably, with the support of our collaborators at the University of Londrina and Gaia AgroSolutions in Brazil, we are establishing significant momentum to advance our NFT bio-fertilizer. We are now closer to bringing our NFT technology to the commercial markets as a sustainable solution – both to reduce the detrimental effects of urea and improve corn growth in Brazil. This is key, as Brazil has just been forecasted as the number one corn exporter, surpassing, even the United States¹.”

2022 and Recent Corporate and Program Developments

• In February 2022, Grace Breeding completed an initial public offering on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) a total of $5,224, in thousands.
• In September 2022, Grace Breeding announced results from field trials of NFT in Israel showing there was a yield increase of 18% in wheat production.
• In October 2022, Grace Breeding announced results from field trials of WDS in Israel showing a yield increase of 17% in industrial tomato production.
• In November 2022, Grace Breeding announced a strategic research and development collaboration with the prestigious University of Londrina (UEL), based in Paraná State, Brazil. The University is investigating Grace Breeding’s NFT related to improving absorption of nutrients from the soil as well as increasing the efficiency of nitrogenous feeding. Both of these attributes would allow farmers to significantly reduce their dependence on synthetic fertilizer.
• In January 2023, Grace Breeding announced study results from its NFT bio-fertilizer conducted under a research and development collaboration with the University of Londrina (UEL), based in Paraná State, Brazil. The results showed superior growth results in Brazilian corn that outperformed standard nitrogen fertilizers while also reducing carbon emissions. Use of less urea leads to lower carbon emissions which is crucial for slowing damage to the environment. The findings from this study are important since Grace Breeding’s NFT would allow farmers to significantly reduce their dependence on synthetic fertilizer that is harmful to the environment, as well as provide them with an alternative that is more economically viable.
• In March 2023, Grace Breeding announced, with Evolva Holding AG (SIX: EVE), a pioneer in natural molecules and industrial biotech, the formation of a partnership to support the development of a bio-fertilizer alternative to reduce chemical nitrogen crop fertilizers use. This collaboration is expected to create a streamlined process for producing the proprietary bio-fertilizer.

Mr. Dotan continued, “In preparation for commercialization, our goal this year will be to complete product registration for both our NFT bio-fertilizer and our WDS stress-tolerance enhancer. We will look to form further collaborations with strategic global entities supporting agricultural innovation such as we have done with our collaborators at Evolva Holding, a pioneer in natural molecules and industrial biotech. This is a key partnership that we recently announced since it will help to streamline our production process for producing our NFT.”

2023 Upcoming Goals and Milestones

• Form additional potential local collaborations that will be additive to the NFT value chain.
• Establish a foundation to run different field trials in additional key markets throughout North America, Europe and Israel for prospective market expansion.
• Form additional potential local collaborations that will be additive to the NFT value chain.
• Promote the NFT and WDS registration procedure in Brazil.
• Create strategic and marketing content that will help the company in the Brazilian market.
• Set prices in the market and start promoting the launch of the NFT and WDS products.

2022 Financial Results

• Research and Development expenses increased by $1,120 in thousands, or 309%, to $1,482 in thousands for the year ended December 31, 2022, compared to the same period of 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase in payroll and related, share-based payment, material, experts and subcontractors expenses due to increase in experiments.
• General and Administrative expenses increased by $1,213 in thousands, or 240%, to $1,718 in thousands for the year ended December 31, 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. The increase was largely due to an increase of $627 in thousands in professional costs associated with financing transactions and being a public company.
• Primarily reflecting the factors noted above, net loss was $3,398 in thousands, or $0.98 per basic and diluted share attributable to shareholders, for the year ended December 31, 2022, compared to $1,740 in thousands, or $1.03 per basic and diluted share attributable to shareholders, for the year ended December 31, 2021.
• The cash and cash equivalents balance and short-term deposits as of December 31, 2022 was $1,059 and $1,040 in thousands, respectively.

Grace Breeding Financial Statements

Consolidated Statement of Income (numbers in thousands, $000)

Balance Sheet (numbers in thousands, $000)

About Grace Breeding’s NFT

Grace Breeding’s NFT works in combination with a natural, non-pathogenic bacteria enabling crops to naturally fix nitrogen and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. As a result, the process reduces CO₂ emissions and leads to a significantly lower environmental impact on soil and the ground water, while reducing synthetic nitrogen use by up to 50%. The global market for chemical nitrogen fertilizers reached a value of over $163.2 billion in 2021², but use of these fertilizers continues to come under great scrutiny with increased regulation due to their environmental impact on soil and ground water. As a result, sustainable alternatives that also are competitive for crop health are in demand by farmers and distributors. Grace Breeding’s NFT can be applied across a wide range of field crops including corn, wheat, soy and rice, and can be applied less frequently – once, during sowing versus three to four times during the season, which is otherwise the norm.

About Grace Breeding’s WDS

Grace Breeding’s WDS is an all-natural bio-stimulant that is a climate-tech solution, protecting a wide range of crops against abiotic climate stressors while improving yield and nutrient uptake. In field trials carried out by the company on industrial tomatoes in Israel, Grace Breeding’s WDS led to a 17% yield increase, despite stressful climate conditions.

About Grace Breeding

Grace Breeding is an AgClimateTech company focused on developing products that are biologically based and provide efficient and natural solutions for farmers and distributors. Grace Breeding aims to disrupt crop agriculture – by providing solutions for crop fertilization and climate stress relief and offering innovative products and solutions that reduce the environmental damage caused by synthetic fertilizers. Grace Breeding has an R&D center in Israel and in parallel the company is developing its products with several leading research and development centers around the world. For more information, visit https://www.gracebreeding.com.

References:

¹Farmdoc Daily (“Will Brazil Emerge as the Number One Corn Exporting Nation?”; March 16, 2023)

²Fertilizer Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning our business operations and future plans.  All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made based on management’s current expectations which involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, he preliminary nature of the Company’s business operations, the dependency on the success of future filed trials, the regulatory environment, the Company’s financial position and other risk factors.  For a more detailed discussion of these and other risks that may cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements in this press release, please refer to our most recent annual report. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements made herein.

Contacts

Grace Breeding Ltd.

Investors
Jeremy Feffer
LifeSci Advisors LLC
jfeffer@lifesciadvisors.com

Media
Inbar Kneller
ReBlonde Public Relations
inbar@reblonde.com