Brief: Catalera BioSciences makes first close of Series A to speed up development of biopesticide products

• Vancouver, Canada-based Catalera BioSolutions has made the first close of its $8 million Series A.
• The company launched earlier in 2024 as a spinout of Canadian biologicals firm Terramera and currently focuses on biopesticides.
• The found was led by S2G Ventures with follow-up investment from Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Capital.
• Catalera anticipates a second and final close of the round to take place in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Why it matters:

Spun out of ag biologicals company Terramera earlier this year, Catalera is now a fully independent company focused on commercializing biological products, CEO Matthew Dahabieh tells AgFunderNews. (Terramera is still a Catalera shareholder.)

The company’s product development platform, inherited from Terramera, brings together patented formulation technologies and laboratory space for rapid prototyping, the goal being to get biological crop protection products to commercialization faster without driving up costs.

Historically, biological crop protections have followed the ‘Big Chem” model that can take a decade or more to move solutions from R&D to commercial product.

Many in the biologicals sector say the product development timeline must be sped up in order to make any meaningful progress in replacing synthetics.

The complex nature of biologicals presents another hurdle to adoption.

“Relative to synthetic chemistry, biological active ingredients tend to have multiple/complex modes of action, be more expensive to produce, and have limited inherent stability,” says Dahabieh.

Sometimes, he adds, “natural solutions need a helping hand” to meet the industry’s needs.

Catalera’s formulation technology helps to stabilize active ingredients and safely deliver them. While the company’s focus today is specifically on biopesticides, Dahabieh suggests it will “explore different opportunities in the future.”

He adds that Series A funding will “accelerate and expand the commercialization of the company’s existing in-market products and our product development pipeline.”

Thanks in part to being spun out of Terramera, the company already has an existing pipeline of products that work across agricultural, professional and consumer applications, and for both row and specialty crops. These are currently available in the US and Mexico.

Forthcoming products include bioinsecticides and botanical biocontrols, among others.

Catalera’s funding news comes the same week UK-based SOLASTA Bio, also working on biopesticides, announced its own Series A raise.