The News & Observer
May 1, 2002

Cropsolution secures funding
Author: David Ranii, Staff Writer

MORRISVILLE -- Cropsolution, one of the new generation of agricultural biotechnology companies taking root in the region, has parlayed its technology into $6.4 million in funding from investors.

The new financing, which the company intends to announce today at the Venture 2002 venture capital conference sponsored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, will enable the company to focus on discovering an agrochemical that demonstrates potential in the laboratory and the greenhouse as well as seeking joint research and development deals with giant agrochemical companies.

The 15-employee business, which had been a subsidiary of a Denver-based pharmaceutical biotechnology company, Invenux, has spun out into a separate company with headquarters in Research Triangle Park. Invenux continues to own a minority stake in Cropsolution, which began operating in January 2001 and also has a laboratory in Silicon Valley.

Cropsolution's two co-founders are well-known in the agbio arena. Eric Ward, chief executive officer, is former co-president of Novartis Agribusiness Biotechnology Research in RTP, which is now Syngenta. Scott Uknes, president, also is a Novartis alumnus and was a co-founder and vice president of business strategy at Paradigm Genetics.

"Eric and Scott are experienced executives in the agricultural world with a wealth of contacts," said venture capitalist Jeff Clark of The Aurora Funds in Durham. "They have built teams before and they have put together a very strong team at Cropsolution." About a half-dozen of Cropsolution's employees previously worked at Novartis.

Aurora led the $6.4 million financing round for Cropsolution. Other investors included Triangle-based Research Triangle Ventures and The Atlantis Group, ATP Capital of New York and Charlotte Angel Partners of Charlotte.

Cropsolution's technology, called Evolutionary Chemistry, has been licensed from Invenux. One of the inventors of the technology is Bruce Eaton, a chemistry professor at N.C. State University as well as senior vice president of technology development at Invenux.

Evolutionary Chemistry is an alternative to traditional screening of molecules against specific targets, such as a gene, to identify those with the greatest potential to become an effective herbicide, fungicide or insecticide. Instead, Evolutionary Chemistry enables rapid synthesis of millions of molecules, known as a chemical library, and rapid identification of the molecules that interact best with these targets.
It typically takes at least six years, and often much longer, to discover and develop a new chemical and bring it to market, according to Michelle Hunt, director of strategic marketing. "We can cut at least two years" off the process, she said.

The Triangle is an agribusiness center, with three industry giants having a major presence in the region: Aventis CropScience, BASF and Syngenta. Aventis is being acquired by another industry behemoth, Bayer.
Although the industry has been and continues to be dominated by the big boys, in the past five years a half-dozen or so agbio start-ups have sprouted in the Triangle -- most notably publicly traded Paradigm Genetics.

Not only did it take Cropsolution nearly a year to raise its funding, but the company also scaled back its plans to raise $8 million to $10 million because the venture capital market is so tight.

"It is worse than tough. It is absolutely terrible," Uknes said.

Copyright 2001 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

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