The research into climate change-resistant crops, zero-carbon fertiliser and plant- and cell-based meat and dairy products will be helped by a multimillion-pound investment.
One of Britain's largest botanic gardens, as well as other organizations, will be able to commercialise and scale up study into managing risks thanks to a £100 million investment by Greensphere Capital.
The funding is intended to increase research into some of the world's most pressing challenges, including how to feed a growing global population.
Along with sustainable agriculture, the investment will help pay for extra researchers to look into botanical and fungal sciences, restoration of habitats, agriculture and forest, with the ultimate goal of turning some projects into companies.
The first fund manager to the government's Green Investment Bank is investing through its climate incubator.
A collection of almost 17,000 species of plants from all over the world can be found at the site in southwest London.
Nearly all of the UK's native plant species can be found in the Millennium Seed Bank, which is an underground collection of over 2 billion seeds from around the world.
When freed from the shorter-term funding cycles found with two- to three-year grants for academic research projects, Kew believes it will be able to leverage its collections.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) provides half of the funding for the non-departmental public body.
The opportunity to increase the impact of the work we are doing on biodiversity is huge.
She said that it wasn't that they're commercialising the island.
We can provide information because of our expertise on collections. Plants that were found in the past might not be found now, giving an indication of what can happen with climate change.
How can we help on the ground, with people, to be able to get money possibly going to those communities, to assist them realise the value of their plants?
The goal is to hire about 20 new researchers and develop up to 10 companies.
GSI believes that the money will strengthen the role of the UK as a scientific and entrepreneurial hub by increasing the laboratory space dedicated to this type of work.
The investment firm discovered that many of the ventures it could have invested in were not based on scientific evidence.
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It wouldn't be right to invest in natural capital without proper science. It's like building a road with no civil engineers.
The science was not developed to its full potential. There were clear solutions. We thought it would be a good idea to try to get the science into companies and give it an additional revenue stream.
A permanent base in Malagasy is considered a critical location for biodiversity loss and is one of the many projects that Kew has.
The University of Cambridge invested £500,000 into Polypharmakos in order to discover and develop new antimicrobial agents from natural products.
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