Solasta Bio Limited

Company description

Solasta Bio produces pest control products designed to selectively inhibit certain insects, using peptide technology designed to be more environmentally friendly than standard insecticides.

SOLASTA Bio is a bioinsecticides company with a unique proposition: nature-inspired small molecule insect control products for the global agricultural market.

SOLASTA Bio (solastabio.com) is a bioinsecticides discovery startup company with a unique proposition: insect control products that are nature-inspired rather than selected from a synthetic chemistry library. SOLASTA Bio designs "Insect Water Taps" (IWTs) that are specific, efficacious and safe for non-target organisms and the environment. Our market creating innovation, the multi-technology IWT platform, is developed from the award-winning H2020 nEUROSTRESSPEP and UK Research Innovation projects. SOLASTA Bio is currently supported by Scottish Enterprise (Scotland's economic development agency) and the founders are engaging with investors and SME grant funders to secure the finance to launch the business. The company's management team has world-leading technological expertise; and global commercial and organisational experience having attracted a former Agrochemical Corporate (Ag Corp) executive. SOLASTA Bio candidates are aimed at the €28B global insecticides market and will be licenced to Ag Corp, who are best placed to complete large-scale field trials and have global sales channels. The company is incubated at University of Glasgow, with excellent laboratory space, and facilities for genome analysis, fast screening, insect rearing and testing facilities. SOLASTA Bio's IWT platform, portfolio of lead bioinsecticides and the founding team are the core assets of the business. The company's strategy is to focus on developing the existing lead products against key insect pests to greenhouse/ small field proof of concept studies. This data package will be used to secure agreements with Ag Corp with a view to entering co-development and licensing deals, providing upfront payments, milestones and product royalties. The IWT platform represents a profound change for how insect control agents are discovered, being rooted in insect physiology rather than traditional synthetic chemistry. This provides the company with a disruptive competitive advantage, balancing risk with high reward. Achieving deals with Ag Corp will validate the IWT platform and the company's business model sufficiently to secure a major Series A investment from VC's that will enable SOLASTA Bio to expand and develop its operations. This will signpost IWT platform potential to the global AG industry modern biopesticides that meet grower and consumer demands.

Project impact

Capital raised to date : Innovate UK grant, £650k (50% matching equity from investment below) Investment £350k 3 Management positions - CEO, CSO, COO 3 full time R&D staff (from April 2020) Planned recruitment for 3 R&D staff (June 2020)

Solasta Bio is dedicated to discovery of new, more selective, "greener" insect control agents that are valuable for modern pest management approaches. Solasta's approach is based on development of short peptides that disrupt function in pest species, while leaving beneficial insects and vertebrates untouched. These compounds thus have high selectivity, low environmental impact, and low- or no residues.