The News & Observer
October 16, 2001

A look at the startups and what they do
Author: David Ranii, Staff Writer

The early success of Paradigm Genetics, which went public last year, demonstrates that nimble entrepreneurial companies can thrive in the shadows of the agribusiness giants. Here are other emerging agribusinesses in the Triangle:

AgraSoL: The 2-year-old company has three employees and sells a natural fungus, called Cartapip 97, that pulp and paper mills spray on piles of wood chips. The fungus, which has been specially bred to be colorless, prevents staining or degrading of the wood.

It is seeking $1.5 million in funding to boost its marketing and develop new products. Those products will draw on technology, including genetic modification technology, acquired from Novartis and Clariant, said Peter Isaac, chief executive.

Athenix: Athenix, which now has 11 employees, expects to grow to 25 within the next year after raising $8 million in venture capital, an unusually large amount for a company's first outside financing.

The company intends to use its gene-discovery technology to identify plant genes with special traits, then create genetically modified plants.

Cropsolution: Cropsolution is seeking $8 million to $10 million in venture capital to develop its proprietary method of speeding up the process of discovering agrochemicals. Cropsolution has 14 employees, half of whom are Novartis alumni. It is a subsidiary of Colorado-based Invenux, but will spin off into a separate company when it raises new financing. Eric Ward, and Scott Uknes are respectively the chief executive and president of Cropsolution. The company is seeking $8 million to $10 million in venture capital.

Insect Biotechnology: Insect Biotechnology applied for regulatory approval of its first product -- Skeetercide, an insecticide aimed at mosquitoes -- Sept. 27.

Skeetercide is a cloned version of a hormone produced by female mosquitoes that regulates the production of enzymes that control digestion. The result: the mosquitoes can't digest and ultimately starve to death.

The company is headed by John Bennett, former chief executive of Protein Delivery (now Nobex), who also co-founded the business.

It has four employees and has raised $4.8 million in in venture capital. Rather than go on a hiring spree, it has advanced its technology by sponsoring research at N.C. State University and the University of Florida.

It is holding discussions with established pesticide companies that could market Skeetercide, and is developing an insect repellent, Skeetershield.

Sun Dance Genetics: Marrying the insect resistance of wild grasses with commercial corn is the goal of Sun Dance Genetics.

But the way Sun Dance is accomplishing this, although patented, uses conventional breeding methods.
"This is an alternative to GMOs," or genetically modified organisms, said Mary Eubanks, who heads the company and is its only employee.

Sun Dance has $822,000 in government grants to develop a maize resistant to corn rootworm, a beetle whose larvae feed on corn roots. The pest costs U.S. farmers an estimated $1 billion annually in crop losses and insecticide costs.

Eubanks said that, if all goes well, the technology could be ready for commercialization in about a year.
She intends to license the technology to an established company.

Copyright 2001 by The News & Observer Pub. Co.

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