Traded as NASDAQ: CERE Products Seeds of energy crops | Industry Biotechnology Founded 1996 | |
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Type Public
(Acquisition by Land O'Lakes pending) Key people Richard Hamilton (President and CEO) Subsidiaries Ceres Sementes do Brasil Headquarters Thousand Oaks, California, United States Parent organizations Land O'Lakes, LAND O'LAKES, INC. | ||
Ceres, Inc. is a biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, California, United States. The company develops and produces seeds of genetically modified crops used for biofuels production. In addition to the operations in the United States, it has a subsidiary in Brazil called Ceres Sementes do Brasil.
Contents
History
The company was founded in 1996. Since 2012 it is listed at the NASDAQ. As of February 2012, the largest shareholders were Artal Luxembourg, Warburg Pincus, Ambergate Trust and Oxford Bioscience, while biotechnology company Monsanto had 4.8% stake. The company's president and CEO is Richard Hamilton.
On June 21, 2016, Ceres was acquired by Land O'Lakes for $17.2 million.
Products and research
Ceres sells sweet sorghum, switchgrass and high biomass sorghum seeds, with its first sales coming for the 2009 growing season. It has tested biofuels production from switchgrass and miscanthus. In 2010, Ceres started to cooperate with Novozymes to improve the enzyme cocktails for biorefinery switchgrass and sweet sorghum. USAID has funded Ceres' research on biotech traits and trait stacks in rice for Asia.