Evogene Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 23, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Welcome to Evogene's First Quarter Results Conference Call. All participants are at present in listen only mode. Following management's formal presentation, we will open the call for the question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded May 23, 2024. Before we begin, I would like to caution that certain statements made during this earnings conference call by Evogene's management will constitute forward looking statements that relate to future events.

Operator

The presentation contains forward looking statements relating to future events and Evogene Ltd, the company, may from time to time make other statements regarding our outlook or expectations for future financial or operating results and or other matters regarding or affecting us that are considered forward looking statements as defined in the U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws as amended. Statements that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward looking statements. Such forward looking statements may be identified by the use of such words as believe, expect, anticipate, should, planned, estimated, intend and potential or words of similar meaning.

Operator

We are using forward looking statements in this presentation when we discuss our value drivers, commercialization, efforts and timing, product development and launches, estimated market size and milestones pipeline as well as our capabilities and technology. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions describe opinions about future events involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Readers are cautioned that certain important factors may affect the company's actual results and could cause such results to differ materially from any forward looking statements that may be made in this presentation. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements and trends in the future may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control, including, without limitation, the current war between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and any worsening of the situation in Israel, such as further mobilizations or escalation in the northern border of Israel and those described in greater detail in Evogene's annual report on Form 20 F and in other information, Evogene files and furnishes with the Israel Securities Authority and the U.

Operator

S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those factors under the heading Risk Factors. Except as required by applicable securities laws, we disclaim any obligation or commitment to update any information contained in this presentation or to publicly release the results of any revisions to any statements that may be made to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. The information contained herein does not constitute a prospectus or other offering document nor does it constitute or form part of any invitation or offer to sell or any solicitation of any invitation or offer to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Evogene or the company, nor shall the information or any part of it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of or be relied on in connection with any action, contract, commitment or relating thereto or to the securities of Evogene or the company. Trademarks included herein are the property of the owners thereof and are used for reference purposes only.

Operator

Such use should not be construed as an endorsement of our products or services. On the call today will be Yaron Eldad, CFO of Evogene and Yoash Zohar, CEO of Castera. Additionally, a representative from each subsidiary will be present at the Q and A session. That said, I would now like to turn over the call to Ofer Haviv, President and CEO of Evogene. Mr.

Operator

Haviv, please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Hello, and good day, everyone. In today's conference call, I would like to start with Evogene Group's financial and business highlights from the beginning of the year, continue with an overview of Evogene's activity and achievements since the beginning of 2024, and conclude with the achievements of our subsidiaries during that period. Following my part, Evogene's CFO, Yaron Eldad, will provide financial update of Q1 2024 activities. After that, we will open the Q and A session. Let's start with the Edmonton Group's financial and business highlights that took place from the beginning of this year.

Speaker 1

In Q1 2024, our total revenues reached approximately $4,200,000 compared to $600,000 in Q1 2023. Looking ahead to the full year 2024, we anticipate continued revenue growth compared to the previous year. In Q1 2024, our loss was approximately $3,800,000 compared to $7,000,000 in Q1 2023, a decline of approximately 46%. Additionally, our projected cash usage for 2024, excluding Biomica and Labick Bio, is approximately $8,000,000 compared to $12,500,000 in 2023, demonstrating a notable 36% decrease year over year. In Q1 2024, Amargent closed down Canonic's operation, resulting in an annualized saving of $1,500,000 On February 6, Evogene and Verb Biotic entered a collaboration agreement to advance probiotic innovation and to produce sustainable microbial metabolites known to improve human health and vitality.

Speaker 1

On April 2nd, Evogene and the Kitchen and FoodTech Hub by The Straus Group established Finally Foods, an AI driven company, aiming for established sustainable and efficient protein production in plants for the food sector. Evogene holds approximately a 40% stake in Finally Foods. The new company is funded by the Kitchen Hub and the Israeli Innovation Authorities. These two new collaborations demonstrate the implementation of Evogene's business model, in which we leverage our technology in new life science sector, not covered by our subsidiaries, benefiting from our partners' expertise in this new field. Now, I would like to highlight the main achievements made by Evogene's subsidiaries from the beginning of this year.

Speaker 1

Casteras recently announced agreement with African and Brazilian seed growers, securing an addition of approximately 900 tons of seeds, are expected to fulfill all standing orders by the end of 2024. Biomica announced it will be presenting preliminary Phase 1 clinical trial results for its BMC 128 Microbiotherapeutics in oncology in a poster presentation at the 2024 ASCO Conference on June 3rd. Lavie Bio received $2,500,000 the second half of an upfront payment from Corteva and announced new collaboration agreement with Syngenta. Additionally, La Fee Bio announced an extension to its joint validation trial with Bayer for its bio fungicides following successful laboratory and greenhouse testing. Marketing and sales efforts for Yalos, Labii Bio's first commercial microbiome based bionipulin product, are expanding in U.

Speaker 1

S. And Canada, with additional crops being added for treatment. LaVipaio anticipates 2024 revenues for Yalos to increase compared to the previous year. AgPlenus announced a new collaboration agreement with Bayer. AgPlenus will be entitled to receive an Afound payment, ongoing research funding, milestone payment and royalties based on future product sales.

Speaker 1

Acrems also achieved a milestone with Corteva under its existing collaboration agreement. I will provide more details on the achievement of each subsidiary later in the presentation. Let us now move to the Evogene overview and I will start by briefly reviewing our strategy and business model. The biggest challenge in developing life science based product is at the beginning of the process, in the discovery and optimization phases, finding the candidate that meet a long list of the required criteria from huge quantity of potential candidates in order to reach a successful commercial product. It takes much time and resources and the priority of success may be slim, like finding a needle in a haystack.

Speaker 1

Evogene, a pioneering company in the field of life science based products, is aiming to revolutionize the industry. Our mission is to leverage dedicated big data sets with cutting edge computational technologies and deep life science understanding, addressing the discovery and optimization challenges to drive product innovation, securing our position as a leader in developing solutions that advance humanity's future. So how do we make it happen? With investment of tens of 1,000,000 of dollars and over a decade of intense work, Evogene has created a groundbreaking platform called Computational Predictive Biology, the CPB platform, which integrates profound scientific knowledge with public and proprietary Big Data and AI technologies. Based on this platform, during past year, Evogene developed 3 innovative AI Tech Agents, addressing the main development challenges of 3 product categories.

Speaker 1

Micro boost AI directs and accelerates the development of micro based products, Campus AI for small molecule based products, and Generatory AI for products based on genetic elements. The value proposition of our AI driven tech engines stems from the efficient finding and optimization of the most promising candidates. Therefore increasing the probability of success, reaching a breakthrough product within a competitive timeframe and in a cost efficient manner. Our 3 AI tech engines were structured to be compatible with the tremendous potential of various market segments, not limited to only one specific segment. This slide demonstrates the vast varieties of market segments that can benefit from our technology.

Speaker 1

Each Tech Engine is at the center of potential development of many product types, addressing the needs of different Life Science Industries. In order to capture the value of our AI Tech engine, our business strategy is to establish diverse collaborative partnerships for life science product development. The partners we collaborate with are experts in specific field that complements our technology. We adapted this approach to maximize the potential of our tech engine, while reducing financials and development risks. Therefore, we form partnerships through licensing or collaboration with companies positioning domain specific knowledge, such as pharmaceuticals or agritech.

Speaker 1

Together, we will develop novel products aiming to full or partial of ownerships upon project completions. We believe this strategy holds the potential for groundbreaking innovations and significant financial gains for Evogene. This is a current snapshot of the status of our business model, with Evogene owning 4 subsidiaries companies and in additional market segments not covered by our subsidiary, we have collaborations with leading companies, all working on developing innovative lifestyle products. More specifically, we have 2 license agreements utilizing Micro Boost AI, 1 with our subsidiary Labibio to develop Ad Biological and the second with our subsidiary Biomica to develop drugs based on the human microbiome. In addition, we established a collaboration with Verbiotics to develop probiotics product on which we announced this quarter and I will elaborate on shortly.

Speaker 1

With respect to Campus AI, we have a license agreement with our subsidiary, AgPlenus, to develop AgChemical and a collaboration agreement with our subsidiary, Biomica, to develop drugs based on small molecules. Last, but not least, with respect to generative AI, we have a license agreement with our subsidiary Castera for the development of elite custard seed varieties, a license agreement with Finally Foods for protein production in plant, on which we announced this quarter, and I will elaborate on shortly. And took collaboration agreement with Color's Farms for improving prostration traits and with the Verizon EU Consortium for improving traits in canola. I would now like to provide additional detail on the decisions concerning our subsidiary Economics and the new engagement with Verbiotics and Finally Foods. In Q1 2024, Evogene decided to cease operations of Canonic, which specializes in developing medical cannabis products, due to the challenging market conditions in the medical cannabis sector.

Speaker 1

This decision results in annualized savings of approximately $1,500,000 resources we intend to allocate to areas with greater growth potential, such as funding Castera's need for ongoing capital. This decision highlights Evogene's commitment to prudent resources management and strategic focus in response to evolving market conditions. At the beginning of February, Evogene and Verbiotics entered a collaboration agreement to advance probiotic innovations. The parties will identify and designing probiotic bacteria that produce highly sustainable quantities of microbial metabolites, known to improve human health and vitality. The collaboration generates excellent synergy by combining Evogene's knowledge in bacteria based product development, utilizing its tech engine, MicroBoost AI, with Verbiotics access to the genomes of various microbial strains that support the production of microbial metabolites, with Vital and Human Health.

Speaker 1

This is a great example of the implementation of Evogene business model in which we leverage our technology in a new life sectors not covered by the activity of our subsidiaries. We expect the collaboration to demonstrate the contributions of our unique technology to the fast growing field of human probiotics, a sector estimated at $55,000,000,000 in 2022 and expected to reach $114,000,000,000 in 2,031. We consider this collaboration as our first step in this lucrative market segment. At the beginning of April, Evogene and The Kitchen FoodTech Hub by The Straus Group teamed up to establish Finally Food, an AI driven company, focused on sustainable protein production in plants for the food sector. Finally Food will leverage Evogene Generatory AI Tech Engines to modify plants for efficient protein production.

Speaker 1

This is another example of the implementation of Evogene business model of entering into a new life science sector our subsidiaries do not cover. Finally Foods has secured precede funding from the Kitchen Hub and the Israel Innovation Authority. Evogene holds approximately 40% stake in the Company. This agreement will not require any financial contribution from Evogene, rather, we expect that the agreement will generate future revenues for Evogene. We believe the conversion will demonstrate the potential of our technology to support the alternative protein market, estimated at $17,600,000,000 in 2022 and expected to reach $55,000,000,000 in 2,032.

Speaker 1

We wish Finally Food the best of success. I will conclude my update with a review on the main achievements made by our subsidiaries from the beginning of 2024. I would like to start with Castera, Ecogen's fully owned subsidiary, with focus on developing an integrated solution to enable large scale commercial cultivation of gas store. Casera's solution aims to address the global demand for stable castor oil supply, mainly for the biodiesel industry. As I mentioned, the Company is utilizing generatory AI tech engine to direct and accelerate the development of its unique elite castor seed varieties.

Speaker 1

In early 2023, Castera entered into a frame supply agreement with ENI, a lithium oil and gas company. Under the agreement, ENI has given Castera purchase order last year, totaling $11,200,000 To date, Castera has supplied only a small portion of the orders, mainly due to initial production challenges. Under the supervision of Castera's new CEO, the Company's recent engagement with seed growers in Africa and Brazil are expected to provide approximately 900 tons in 2024, which is expected to fulfill all existing purchase orders and provide additional inventory later this year. It is anticipated that the balance of the existing purchase order will be delivered in the second half of twenty twenty four. I am happy to share with you that Castera is now building its backlog orders for 2025.

Speaker 1

Castera remains at the forefront of developing superior castor seeds varieties with high yield, even under difficult growth conditions and with traits suitable for mechanized farming operations. Now, I would like to review our subsidiary AgPlans, aiming to discover next generation innovative crop protection products, including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, and commercialize them through collaboration with world leading partners. AgPlenus utilized Evogene's Campus AI tech engine to direct and accelerate its product development. Major agrochemical companies dominate today's crop protection industry. Still, they look to agtech companies to discover new target proteins and small molecules that inhibit such target protein, serving as the active ingredient in commercial protection products.

Speaker 1

AgPlenus is the company that addresses this need, as shown by the 2 announcements made this passing quarter. On February 21, 2024, AgPlanus announced entering into a licensing and collaboration agreement with Bayer to develop a novel mode of action, broad spectrum herbicide for farmers targeting the APTH1 protein discovered by AgPlans. Under the agreement, AgPlans will be entitled to receive an upfront payment, ongoing research funding, milestone payment and royalties, based on future product sales. Bayer will have the exclusive license for the development and commercialization of products under the collaboration. On March 6, 2024, AgPlenus announced it has reached a milestone under its existing collaboration agreement with Corteva to develop new herbicide through a novel mode of action, APCO12, which was discovered by AgPlenus as well.

Speaker 1

In the next phase, the collaboration will focus on optimizing the herbicides' candidates toward a commercial level product. These two collaboration agreements, strengths AgPlenus' financial stability and overall positioning in the agriculture market. I would like now to continue with the 2 subsidiaries using Micro Boost AI to accelerate and direct their product development, Lavie Bio and Biomica. Lavie Bio leveraged Evogene Micro Boost AI Tech Engine to develop next generation ad biological products. On February 20, 2024, LaVie Bio signed an agreement with Syngenta for the discovery and development of new biological insecticidal solution.

Speaker 1

The collaboration will leverage Lavie Bio unique technology platform to rapidly identify and optimize bio insecticide candidates. On February 28, 2024, LaVie Bio also announced meeting Corteva's licensing agreement requirement, enabling the successful receipt of the second half advance payment of $2,500,000,000 from Corteva, totaling $5,000,000 Additionally, LAVIG Bio extended its joint validation trial with Bayer for its bio fungicides following successful laboratory and greenhouse testing. The collaboration aims to address disease affecting fruit and vegetables worldwide. With positive results from the 1st year, Bayer proceeded to field experiments for further validation. Also announced this quarter, on March 13th, Lafy Bio partnered with Service Global Ad Group to integrate its bioiniquelent, Yalos, into regenerative agriculture programs across the North America.

Speaker 1

These collaborations aim to enhance growing practice and offer tailored solutions to support productivity and sustainability growth in the agriculture industry, particularly in segments like spring wheat, durham and oats. This announcement and other marketing and sales efforts for Yalos, LaVie Bio First commercial microbio based product, support the penetration of Yalos in United States and Canada markets with additional crops being added for treatments. Based on initial orders and sales projections, we anticipated 2024 revenues for Yalos to increase compared to the previous

Speaker 2

years.

Speaker 1

Now, to Evogene's subsidiary Biomica, which specialize in developing microbiome based therapeutics for human health. On January 17, 2024, Biomica reached a significant milestone by completing Phase 1 trial enrollment for its microbiome based immune oncology drug, PMC-one hundred and twenty eight, a rationally designed consortium of 4 bacteria. BIOMICA recently announced that it will be presenting preliminary Phase 1 study data of PFC-one hundred and twenty eight in a poster presenting at the ASCO 2024 Annual Conference on June 3rd. Biomica is now preparing for advancing to Phase 2 of the clinical trial for BMC 128 and already conducted a pre IND meeting with the FDA aiming to initiate Phase 2 in 2025. In addition, results from Biomica's preclinical study in the IBS program, conducted in collaboration with New York University's Medical School, were presented at the Digestive Disease Week 2024 Annual Conference in May 2024.

Speaker 1

To summarize my part in this call, I would like to emphasize how proud I am of the achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries to date, reflected by the growing list of commercial and financial partners the Evogene Group is engaged with. During the last quarter, LaVie Bio announced partnering with 2 additional world leading ad companies, Syngenta and Bayer. Castera disclosed its engagement with E and I, a world leading oil and gas company. AgPlanus announced partnering with Bayer. And Evogene itself announced a new collaboration with Verbiotics to advance human probiotic innovations and also established, together with the Kitchen Hub by Straub Group, Finally Foods, a new company focused on protein production in plant.

Speaker 1

No doubt, these are great achievements to start the year with. I will now hand over the call to Jaron, Evogene's CFO, who will review our financial results for the Q1 of 2024.

Speaker 3

As of March 31, 2024, EverGen had consolidated cash, cash equivalents and short term bank deposits of approximately $26,600,000 compared to approximately $31,100,000 on December 31, 2023. During the Q1, the consolidated cash usage was approximately $4,500,000 Excluding our 2 self funding subsidiaries, La Vibayo with a positive cash flow of approximately $300,000 and Bayomica with a cash usage of approximately $1,400,000 the cash usage of Evogene and the other subsidiaries was approximately $3,400,000 As Ofer already stated, our projected cash usage for 2024, excluding Biomica and LaVie Bio, is approximately $8,000,000 compared to $12,500,000 in 2023, demonstrating a notable 36% decrease year over year. Revenues for the Q1 of 2024 were approximately $4,200,000 compared to approximately $600,000 in the same period the previous year. The revenue increase was primarily due to revenues recognized by LaVie Bio for the license agreement with Corteva and due to revenues recognized by AgPlenus for the new collaboration with Bayer during the Q1 of 2024. As Ofer stated, we anticipate continued revenue growth in 2024 compared to the previous year, mainly in the second half of twenty twenty four, based on Castera's forecast for seed order supply.

Speaker 3

R and D expenses for the Q1 of 2024, which are reported net of nonrefundable grants received, were approximately $4,800,000 and remained stable as compared to approximately $4,800,000 in the same period in the previous year. Sales and marketing expenses were approximately $992,000 for the Q1 of 2024 compared to approximately $800,000 in the same period the previous year. The increase is mainly due to increased sales and marketing activities in Castera, promoting its elite seed varieties and La Vie Bio promoting the sales of its first commercial product, Yalos. General and administrative expenses were approximately $1,700,000 in the Q1 of 2024 compared to approximately $1,500,000 in the same period in the previous year, mainly due to non cash compensation to the subsidiary CEOs. Following the decision to cease Canonic operations, we have recorded in other expenses approximately $500,000 in the Q1 of 2024, mainly due to impairment of fixed assets.

Speaker 3

Operating loss for the Q1 of 2024 was approximately $4,100,000 compared to approximately $6,800,000 in the same period in the previous year. The decrease in operating loss is mainly due to the increased revenues. Financing income net for the Q1 of 2024 was approximately $241,000 compared to financing expenses net of approximately $230,000 in the same period in the previous year. This difference was mainly due to an increase in interest income and revaluation of convertible safe during the Q1 of 2024 as compared to the same period in the previous year. Net loss for the Q1 of 2024 was approximately $3,800,000 compared to approximately $7,000,000 in the same period in the previous year.

Speaker 3

The $3,200,000 decrease in the net loss is mainly due to the increased revenues in the Q1 of 2024 and financial income, as mentioned above, which was partially offset by the one time $519,000 of other expenses created by ceasing Canonic's operation. I would now like to hand over the call to the operator for the Q and A session.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. The first question is, are there any updates on Evogene's CRISPR capabilities?

Speaker 1

Hi, good morning. Good day, everyone. This is Ofer speaking. As you know, we participate in a very important consortium that was focusing on developing CRISPR technology and we took a major role in this consortium. The technology that we established in this consortium was the base for our collaboration announced late last year with COLOR in developing genome editing technology for crescine trait.

Speaker 1

We also have internal activity here in Evogene with respect to the CRISPR technology for plant. So yes, we are active in this area. Yes, we are also looking for opportunity to leverage the technology that we developed there. And when there will be a specific news, we will be more than happy to disclose it to our investors.

Operator

The next question, how are your Casteras seed suppliers preparing today for harvest, which can support follow on orders to ENI in 2025?

Speaker 1

I will ask Joach, the CEO of Castera to answer this question. Joach?

Speaker 2

Yes. Hi, everyone. Good afternoon or good morning, anywhere you are. So in Brazil, our seed suppliers are doing this for the 2nd year. They all have the right equipment and everything is streamlined.

Speaker 2

We are visiting there periodically. 1 of our agronomist just came back last week, another one is going next week. I visited there personally about a month and a half ago to make sure that everything is ready for harvest. In Kenya, which is turning to be our major seed supplying operation, we purchased a custard header from Nardi in Italy. It is being shipped next week out of Italy and will arrive in time for harvest in Kenya.

Speaker 2

We're also shipping dehulling and seed processing equipment from India and China to set up our own logistical center where we will be able to clean, sort and pack the seeds all under Castera. We're in the process of registering a local entity in Kenya, which would operate the above mentioned. Again, we are there. I personally visited each and many of our growers and the location for the seed processing. And at this point in time, we see no we envision no problems in the seed processing and harvest procedures.

Operator

What considerations do you believe remain outstanding before Eni can place a follow on order for Castor Seed to be delivered in 2025?

Speaker 1

Joach, can you take this question as well?

Speaker 2

Sure. So, we cannot comment at this point in time about 2025 orders. I will only say that we are deep into negotiation with clients, foremost, E and I, of course, on the different territories, which means Kenya and other African territories. Some of the orders going directly to ENI in specific location, others are going through their main headquarters in Italy. We are negotiating with both and as soon as we have clear orders, we will of course notify everybody.

Operator

Were 100 percent of the upfront payment from Bayer to AgPlenis realized in the Q1? And do you expect the ongoing R and D funding milestone payments and royalties to allow AgPlenis to be a profitable on a go forward basis?

Speaker 1

Here with us, we have also Dan Gelbend, the new CEO of AgPlenus, which I'm very happy that he joined us at the beginning of this year, and I will ask him to take the lead and answer this question. So Dan, please?

Speaker 4

So thank you very much. As Yaron said, the full amount of the upfront payment were recognized by Evogene in this quarter. And to the second part of the question, the payments that we are receiving are a significant contribution to our revenues and they are in addition to other revenue streams that we have from other collaborations. We are not yet cash positive from these. Evidently as we go along and we start to receive from these multiple collaborations both milestone payments and royalties in the future, we will be cash positive.

Speaker 4

We continue to expand our collaborations in order to be self sustainable in the short term even before we start to receive significant revenue payments.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Operator

The next question. What is your confidence level in filling the 10,000,000 caster seed order by year end? And what will be the cadence of the filling of this order?

Speaker 1

Joach, can you take this question as well?

Speaker 2

Yes. So as we notified, we envision production of at least 900 tons of seeds in 2024. So we will be able to fill all the open orders for 2024, 2023 and 2024. The cadence will be the major supply will start in August all the way through December. And will probably peak around October.

Operator

The next question, a cash question. What amount of cash have you front end invested in it to line up capacity for the 900 tons per Castor? What amount of future investment will be needed?

Speaker 1

So I will take this question. This is something that Castera is responsible for, but still I would answer it. So, there is a need, of course, when you build an inventory for ongoing capital, and as I mentioned earlier, one of the things that we are doing in Evogene is investing our money in the places where we see high probability of success. So, one of the reasons what we are planning to do is apart from the money that we are going to save from closing a canonic activity is to invest in funding the ongoing capital needs of Testera. So this is already all taken into account and we build it in a way that we can fund the needs for the inventory.

Speaker 1

And when we'll start to receive revenue from our partners, we are going to use it to build the inventory for next year. And since we are expecting to start to receive significant amount of money during the Q3 of this year, so we are going to build the inventory for 2025, actually starting in 2024. So this is we are going to fund our ongoing the needs for ongoing capital. At the beginning for this at the beginning of the first half of twenty twenty four, it's going to be from Evogene Resources, part of which is coming from closing economic. 2nd half, it will start also to be funded from revenue we are going to generate from our existing partners because what we are trying to do is that to start 2024 with a nice level of inventory to supply the demand that we expected in 2025.

Operator

The next question. Are the 900 tons of castor seed supply in addition to the 400 ton expansion you reported on your Q1 earnings call? Or is the total supply now 900 tons?

Speaker 1

So the total supply is 900 tons.

Operator

The next question. How much, if any, of the $4,200,000 in revenues were from sales, seed sales?

Speaker 1

As I mentioned in my part, only a small portion from the orders we received in 2023 were delivered. So from this, you can understand that only a small portion from the revenue from this quarter is attributed from Castera activity. There is there are some revenue coming from Castera activity, but it's a very modest compared to what we are expecting to see in the second half of twenty twenty five as we already disclosed. So, I would like to refer in general to what why do we think that our technology is unique. I think that what we are doing in Evogene is that we are not just building a computational technology.

Speaker 1

It's all guided and we build it together with a group of biologists and chemists that actually are coming with the problems they are facing and they know about, which the industry is facing and we are really trying to address this type of problems using our technology. And then when we are working with our partners, I think and also with our subsidiaries, this is bringing additional validation to the technology and also help us to improve the technology all the time. And I think that the fact that in our company, and this is very rare to see it in other places, the fact that we have 3 tech engines, one for genomics type of product, then microbials and then chemistry, and we are all managing it under the same umbrella. This has put us in a very, very unique position because in biology and in life science in general, it's all connected. It's all connected and you can't just focus on one fragment from the big story.

Speaker 1

So I think this is what's unique Evogene technology and you know what, let's our partners to be the proof. I mean, the number of partners that we are working with is getting bigger and bigger. It's actually, it's really the 1st tier type of companies such as Corteva, Bayer, Syngenta, ICL, and I think this is just the beginning. I believe that there will be more that our subsidiary or even Evogene will direct is going to work with. So I truly believe that we are offering something different from what exists today in the market.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Chavib, would you like to make your concluding statement?

Speaker 1

Yes. I would like to say thank you for everybody for participating in this analyst call. I think that we had a great Q1 in this year. We are looking forward to continue and to update you on the next achievement of our company and analyst call. Thank you very much and have a great day.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes Evogene's Q1 2024 results investor webinar. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
Evogene Q1 2024
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