Devgen was founded as a spin-off of Ghent University and The Flemish Institute for Biotechnology in 1997 to commercialize intellectual property it licensed on the use of RNAi in nematodes and its use for screening for therapeutics and/or their targets.

[8] In June 2005, employing close to 100 people, Devgen raised more than 33 million euro in a successful IPO on Euronext Brussels.

[11] In early 2007, Devgen and Monsanto announced a five-year collaboration in which the two companies would share technologies, with Devgen focusing the shared technology on the development of rice and other small cereal grains, and Monsanto using them to develop new traits for corn, cotton, and soybeans.

[12] Later in 2007, Devgen acquired Monsanto's subsidiaries in India, Pakistan, and the Philippines that developed and sold hybrid seeds for 4 crops: rice, sunflower, sorghum and pearl millet, for about $26M.

[22][23] The offer came six months after the companies had signed an agreement under which Syngenta would have developed sprayable RNAi-based crop protection products based on Devgen's technology.