The UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund is backed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Fund’s partners are 9 publicly funded research bodies, including STFC, BBSRC, NERC and Dstl. The Fund is independently managed by venture capital specialist Midven. They help build companies from great science developed in laboratories, science and technology campuses and synthetic biology. They hold investments in some of the UK’s most innovative companies, in areas as diverse as novel antibiotics, research into Alzheimer’s disease, “green” chemicals and airport security.

UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund

Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's main economic development agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. The firm wants to stimulate Scotland’s economic ambition – creating an innovative, high-wage and highly productive economy with a competitive, international market presence and a focus on high value opportunities. Scottish Enterprise partners with the public and private sectors to identify and exploit the best opportunities to deliver a significant, lasting effect on the Scottish economy.

Scottish Enterprise

SIS Ventures has been created with the overall aim of supporting and growing high impact organisations through access to mission-aligned investment. SIS Ventures has a goal of becoming the go to investor and partner for social entrepreneurs. The fund will offer conventional financial returns alongside social and/or environmental returns by investing either equity or debt into purpose driven companies.

SIS Ventures

The Yield Lab Europe is a €50m early stage Agrifood and Ag Tech fund which comprises an accelerator and a larger follow-on fund, investing in high tech companies with the potential to significant disrupt and improve our current systems of global food production, and to improve the environmental sustainability of the industry.  The main fund invests €1m each into 10-12 companies over several follow on rounds, with the strongest accelerator companies expected to progress to the main fund. The Yield Lab Europe is also part of a global network of Agrifood Tech funds, with global headquarters in St Louis USA, and sister funds in LATAM and Singapore.

The Yield Lab Europe

Future Planet Capital is the global impact-led venture capital firm built to back growth companies from the world's top universities and research ecosystems. The group manages $380m for institutional investors and has invested in over 300 companies, with 60 successful exits. It's portfolio is built around breakthrough technologies solving global challenges in Climate, Health, Education, Sustainable Growth and Climate Change.

Future Planet Capital

Rubio Impact Ventures is a venture fund focused on early and growth stage enterprises with a positive impact on society and the environment.

Rubio Impact Ventures

Cavallo Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on feed, pet nutrition, aquafeed, ingredients, and formulation. They invest their own capital and are looking for pioneering entrepreneurs that insist on building successful companies without taking shortcuts. Cavallo Ventures was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco, California.

Cavallo Ventures

Solasta Bio

Solasta Bio develops environment-friendly products that meet a global need for new and effective crop protection.

Solasta Bio is a Glasgow-based agritech company specializing in the development of peptide-based bioinsecticides for crop protection. Founded in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, the company has created the world's first technology platform for producing neuropeptide-based Insect Control Agents (ICAs) derived from nature rather than synthetic chemistry.

SOLASTA Bio's Company Video

Better for your crops. Vital for our planet.

Glasgow-based agritech firm Solasta Bio secures seven-funding boost to scale eco-friendly pesticides

Solasta bio

💸 Investment News 💸: Solasta Bio

Solasta

SOLASTA Bio Latest News: Completes Successful Trials

Oerth Bio • Our Team

Scotland’s SOLASTA Bio Nabs £4M in Pre

Scottish startup SOLASTA Bio secures €4.5M to scale up nature

Green insecticide start-up Solasta Bio secures £4m funding

Funding of £4m means growth for green insecticide firm Solasta Bio

Biologically protecting plants from pests

Biopesticides

Julian Dow on LinkedIn: Very happy that SOLASTA Bio has won this award, from a field of over 200…

Solasta Bio is a Glasgow-based agritech company specializing in the development of peptide-based bioinsecticides for crop protection. Founded in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, the company has created the world's first technology platform for producing neuropeptide-based Insect Control Agents (ICAs) derived from nature rather than synthetic chemistry.
These ICAs are designed to disrupt targeted physiological processes in insect pests, effectively controlling them while leaving beneficial pollinators like bees and other non-target species unharmed. Solasta Bio's solutions offer unique insect specificity, proven efficacy on par with traditional chemical insecticides, and an environmentally friendly, biodegradable approach that does not accumulate residues in nature.
Solasta Bio's platform enables the company to target a wide spectrum of pests, including those resistant to synthetic chemistries. The company aims to bring its first ICA products to market by 2027/2028, approximately half the time traditionally required for synthetic pest control products. Its technology is patent-protected, and an additional patent application is pending.
In February 2024, Solasta Bio announced the successful completion of over 20 field trials across Europe, the UK, and the US, demonstrating the efficacy and safety of its ICAs across various crops and pests, including aphids, Spotted Wing Drosophila, caterpillars, and leafhoppers.

Groundwork BioAg is an Israeli bioagriculture company that produces mycorrhizal inoculants for mainstream agriculture. Its flagship product line, Rootella, consists of highly concentrated mycorrhizal fungi that establish a symbiotic relationship with plant roots, extending their reach into the soil. This symbiosis enables plants to access otherwise unavailable nutrients, especially phosphorus, leading to significant crop yield improvements. Additionally, Rootella enhances plant resilience to various stresses like drought and salinity while reducing fertilizer dependency.
Groundwork BioAg's Mycorrhizal BioPlatform, driven by innovative high-volume production techniques, has been successfully commercialized across major agricultural regions globally. These include the US, Brazil, China, India, Canada, Ukraine, Europe, Asia, and Africa, catering to crops like corn, soybeans, grains, fruits, and vegetables. A standout offering is Tormos, a granular mycorrhizal inoculant tailored for Indian farming practices, developed through a collaboration with ADAMA.
In 2022, Groundwork BioAg raised USD 18 million in Series B funding led by Climate Innovation Capital, underscoring the demand for yield-enhancing biologicals that sequester carbon and promote regenerative agriculture. The company's technology enables conventional and regenerative farmers to achieve higher profitability while permanently sequestering carbon in their fields. Groundwork BioAg has also launched the Rootella Carbon program in 2023, aiming to sequester one gigaton of CO2 within a decade through its mycorrhizal inoculants.
Key customers and partnerships
In 2023, Groundwork BioAg expanded its North American team by appointing Andrew Duff as General Manager to accelerate the adoption of Rootella mycorrhizal inoculants among mainstream growers in the US.
In June 2022, Groundwork BioAg partnered with ADAMA, a leading global crop protection company, to offer the Tormos mycorrhizal inoculant in India. This collaboration leverages ADAMA's extensive farmer network and Groundwork BioAg's Mycorrhizal BioPlatform to provide cost-effective solutions to Indian growers.

Groundwork BioAG

Enko Chem, Inc. is a crop health company focused on developing sustainable crop solutions to address global food security challenges. The company utilizes its proprietary ENKOMPASS technology platform, which combines DNA-encoded library screening, machine learning, and structure-based design, to discover novel crop protection chemistries. This approach enables Enko to rapidly identify new, better-performing, and more targeted molecules across various categories of crop protection products.
Enko's current pipeline is led by a range of herbicides designed to break cycles of weed and pest resistance while reducing environmental impact compared to existing solutions. The company aims to provide effective crop protection solutions that help growers adapt to and mitigate challenges exacerbated by climate change, such as pesticide-resistant weeds, fungus, and pests.
Since its inception in 2017, Enko has generated hundreds of leading molecules through its technology platform. In January 2023, the company announced an USD 80 million Series C funding round, bringing its total capital raised to USD 150 million. The additional funds will be utilized to advance Enko's product pipeline and support the company's efforts to bring new crop protection solutions to market.

Enko Chem

BioPhero is a Denmark-based company that has developed a pioneering and highly efficient yeast fermentation process for manufacturing pheromones at significantly lower costs and with fewer production steps compared to traditional chemical synthesis methods. Pheromones are compounds used in integrated pest management programs for controlling insect populations by disrupting the mating process, thereby reducing egg-laying and decreasing the next generation of the target insect species. BioPhero's patented fermentation technology allows for the sustainable and cost-effective production of pheromones, expanding their potential application from specialty crops like fruits and vegetables to large-scale row crops such as corn, soybeans, and rice.
Through its innovative bioprocessing platform, BioPhero aims to make pheromones widely available and contribute to sustainable agriculture by offering an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional insecticides. The company's pheromone products are highly specific to target pests, promoting biodiversity and posing no threat to pollinators or beneficial insects. FMC Corporation, a leading agricultural sciences company, acquired BioPhero in July 2022 for approximately USD 200 million, integrating its pheromone platform into FMC's biologicals business. FMC projects revenue from pheromones and pheromone-based insect control products to reach approximately USD 1 billion with above company-average EBITDA margin by 2030.

BioPhero

Redag Crop Protection is a biotechnology research and development company focused on developing novel crop protection products. The company's core technology is the Redox Switch platform, which allows for the creation of new compounds by modifying the oxidation state of existing best-in-class products. This approach provides Redag Crop Protection with a pipeline of candidates across multiple high-value applications in the crop protection industry.
The Redox Switch platform offers several advantages. It enables the company to secure intellectual property rights around existing products by creating structurally similar but chemically distinct compounds. These new compounds share similarities with well-characterized parent compounds, reducing the risk profile, development time, testing redundancy, and overall cost of bringing products to market. Additionally, the structural similarity to existing product classes means that Redag Crop Protection can leverage current manufacturing assets, further reducing market entry costs.

Redag Crop Protection

Companies that use microscopic living organisms (such as viruses, bacteria or nematodes) or toxins produced by these organisms to act as pest control. This also includes companies developing technology platforms to use microorganism chemistry to develop different kinds of microbial pesticides.

Companies that develop pesticide substances produced by plants as a result of genetic manipulation. These companies use technology such as genetic engineering to derive natural substances that plants can produce to kill pests that feed on them.

Companies that use machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to develop plant-based replacements to synthetic chemical. These companies develop biochemicals that use naturally occurring substances such as pheromones, and insect attractants to trap and control pests in plants.  This also includes companies that offer plant intelligence for creating biochemicals.

Companies that use naturally occurring plant materials such as Azadirachtin, nicotinoids, natural pyrethrins, rotenoids,  and neem products in full or dilute form for pest and insect controls.

Companies that use natural enemies or predators like lady beetle, true bug, lacewings or parasitoids to protect the plants from pests.

Companies that use natural resources such as diatomaceous earth, mineral oil, water, minerals such as sulfur, potassium, or even organic acids for controlling various types of pests.

Companies that use biologically-derived substances such as microorganisms, seaweed extracts, and other organic matter that are applied to the plants or the soil to improve nutrient uptake, enhance tolerance of plant stress, and in turn improve crop growth and yield.

Provides natural alternatives to chemical pesticides

Processes often use AI and machine learning-based tech platforms to formulate biopesticides

Solasta Bio

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