Startups developing biological inputs for crops raised just over $892 million worldwide last year, according to preliminary data from AgFunder.

That’s well over double their total funding haul for the previous year – indicating just how much interest in the space has grown.

Please note that this is an upward revision of AgFunder figures first quoted by Reuters earlier this month. The data are adjusted using a model of how they will appear 12 months into the future based on historical trends, to take predicted reporting lags into account. As such, they may differ from earlier published versions of the same data.

Below, AgFunder lists the top 15 biologicals funding deals from 2021, by US dollar amount raised.

AgFunder has included all private ventures working on a variety of biological crop inputs, including:

Biofertilizers

Biopesticides

Biofungicides

Biostimulants

Other biological controls

By geography, of the top 15 deals:

Eight (53%) involved companies headquartered in the US.

France is second-placed with two deals (13%).

Canada, Denmark, Israel, Switzerland, and the UK played host to one deal each.

By far the biggest deal in the biologicals space last year — and among the top 20 in agrifoodtech overall — was Pivot Bio‘s $430 million Series D round in July, which was co-led by DCVC and Temasek.

Pivot Bio is one of several startups offering an alternative to conventional nitrogen-based fertilizers by ‘programming’ microbes in the soil so that they produce more of the element in situ.

Another company on  the above list working on a similar solution is Kula Bio, which leverages the nitrogen-storing bacteria Xanthobacter autotrophicus. It raised $10 million in seed funding in May.

Second-placed AgBiome is focused on pest and disease control: it screens the natural world for microbes which might be suitable for such purposes — its initial products are fungicides — and it scored $116 million for its September Series D round.