Glasgow Uni spinout SOLASTA Bio secures £1.3m to support development of eco-friendly insecticides
by Startacus Admin
SOLASTA Bio secures major investment to help commercialise its nature-inspired neuropeptide-based insect control products
Fab news to start the week for Glasgow University spinout, SOLASTA Bio, having just secured seed investment of £1.3 million to support ongoing development of its unique nature-inspired pesticides.
Established in May 2020 after 4 years of research funded by UKRI BBSRC and the EC, and commercialisation support from Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Spinout Programme, the company has developed the world's first technology platform for creating neuropeptide-based insect control products that are nature-inspired. These products effectively target insect pests while preserving beneficial pollinators such as bees in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
Investors in this seed funding round include The Yield Lab Europe, SIS Ventures, members of Cambridge Agritech and UKI2S, who also provided access to the UKI2S managed Innovate UK Sub Fund grant. Founding investors UKI2S and Scottish Enterprise provided pre-seed funding.
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With this latest funding secured, SOLASTA Bio is aiming to take the trials of its biopesticides out of the laboratory and into real-world settings and hopes to bring its first biopesticides to market in 2027, around half the time traditionally taken by synthetic pest control products.
The company was co-founded by award-winning scientist and entrepreneur Professor Shireen Davies, CEO, world leader in insect biology and functional genomics Professor Julian Dow, CSO, former BASF senior executive Paul Bernasconi, CTO; and Professor Robert Liskamp, peptide technology.
Professor Shireen Davies, CEO, SOLASTA Bio commented: “The global market for insecticides has been under intense scrutiny for many years now, with growing demands on food production requiring greater levels of crop protection, counterbalanced by heightened concerns for the environment. Through our proprietary technology platform, we have developed a world-leading solution which represents a profound change for how insect control agents are discovered, and a step change in how we not only protect our crops worldwide, but also our ecosystem. This seed funding now allows us to accelerate our R&D plans and move towards Series A in 2022.”
Oliver Sexton, Investment Director, UKI2S, added “SOLASTA’s platform of highly selective biopesticides will provide an alternative to environmentally damaging crop protection agents. UKI2S is excited by the team’s technology which has global potential and is addressing large agritech markets”.
Good luck to the SOLASTA team as they work on commercialising this innovative and important technology!
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Published on: 16th August 2021
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