Botanical Solution, Inc., a Davis, Calif.-based innovator of sustainable, consistent and cost-effective Advanced Botanical Materials for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications, closed $6.1m Series A funding round.
The round was led by Otter Capital with participation from Inversiones el Coigue and Inversiones Eurocel, both based in Santiago, Chile.
This funding will enhance BSI’s value proposition by facilitating the geographic expansion of its current botanical-based products and development of a new product pipeline derived from its proprietary biotech platform.
Led by CEO Gastón Salinas, BSI is a Delaware Corporation with a proprietary R&D platform for sustainable and improved production of consistent and high- quality Advanced Botanical Materials (ABM). ABM-01 is the first ABM produced by the company, based on a tissue cultured plant called Quillaja saponaria. ABM-01 is the active ingredient used in two gold standard products, BSI’s biopesticide Quillibrium® and the adjuvant QS-21, used in modern vaccine development.
For agricultural markets, this funding will support the production and sales growth of BSI’s first commercially successful product marketed as BotriStop® and its recently announced global brand Quillibrium®, which are based on a tissue cultured tree native to Chile, the Quillaja saponaria. The product has been used on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables throughout Chile. Quillibrium® was launched in Peru last year and will soon reach growers across Mexico through BSI’s main distribution partner Syngenta. Quillibrium® continues regulatory progress in the US and will soon initiate registration in additional countries to expand its global presence. This new funding will also accelerate market readiness of new botanical biopesticide products currently in later development stages and enable the expansion of BSI’s R&D pipeline.
For pharmaceutical markets, BSI’s new funding will increase the quantity of Quillaja saponaria plants that can be grown at BSI’s labs and the sustainable production of billions of doses of gold standard adjuvant QS-21, traditionally obtained from old native trees that are increasingly affected by climate change and strict deforestation laws in Chile. QS-21 is currently used in Covid-19 and malaria vaccines, as well as a blockbuster shingles vaccine. With this funding BSI will become a major supplier of pharmaceutical grade QS-21.
FinSMEs
18/01/2022