A Scottish agricultural technology business, specialising in the next generation of green insecticides, has secured £4m of new investment to scale up development.
Investment in SOLASTA Bio's pre-Series A funding round was led by Yield Lab Europe, with other investors including Rubio Impact Ventures, Scottish Enterprise, Cavallo Ventures, SIS Ventures, UKI2S and several private agritech investors.
Funding also includes grant support from Innovate UK’s Transforming Food Production competition and Scottish Enterprise.
The latest round brings the total raised by the Glasgow-based company to £5.5m.
It develops environmentally-friendly insect control agents (ICAs) which offer crop protection, while preserving the ecosystem by protecting beneficial insects such as bees.
The technology platform creates neuropeptide-based insect control products that are nature-inspired rather than selected from a synthetic chemistry library.
SOLASTA Bio is aiming to scale up its UK and US operations, expand its technical and commercial teams - creating 25 jobs - accelerate the development of its technology platform and target new markets.
Having run several successful early-stage trials with commercial partners, SOLASTA is on course to bring its first ICAs to market in 2027 - at least half the time traditionally taken by synthetic pest control products. Its technology is patent protected, with further patent protection currently under submission.
The business is led by a co-founding management team consisting of chief executive Shireen Davies, chief scientific officer Julian Dow and former BASF senior executive Paul Bernasconi, alongside chair Rob Wylie, chief financial officer David Armour and chief commercial officer Daphne Preuss.
The company currently employs a team of 25 research, development, commercial and consultancy staff.
Davies commented: “We’ve spent the past 18 months developing our platform and validating peptide candidates with expert third parties and commercial partners - we’re really excited by the results and feel that we’re ready to take the next step towards commercialising our technology.
“With the issue of food security and effective crop protection becoming an increasingly pressing issue for the agriculture industry and governments worldwide, there is an urgent need for sustainable environmentally-friendly alternatives to current synthetic pesticides.
“We’re confident that our technology provides the solution and has the potential to make a huge impact.”
Kerry Sharp, director of entrepreneurship and investment at Scottish Enterprise, said: “SOLASTA is a terrific example of how breakthroughs in science and academia can be brought to bear on the world’s grand challenges and build the high-growth businesses of the future.
“We’ve supported the company since its very earliest stages and continue to be impressed by its product development, diverse team and the strong cadre of investors it’s attracted.”
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