Flagship Pioneering is at it again.
Less than three months after launching immune medicine company Repertoire Immune Medicines, one of Massachusetts’ largest venture capital firms focused on life sciences and biotechnology announced the launch of Invaio Sciences on Wednesday.
Founded in 2018, the newly launched company will "unlock the potential of the planet’s interdependent natural systems to solve pressing agricultural, nutritional, and environmental challenges," by managing insect populations.
Insects are responsible for essential environmental and biological processes as pollinators, recyclers of nutrients and food for other creatures. But according to some estimates, more than 40 percent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered — at a rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of mammals, birds and reptiles.
Invaio Sciences' approach to improving the health and performance of agriculturally vital insects is to manage insect populations by controlling the nutritional function organ called the obligate microbial symbiont (OMS). You can read more about it here.
The startup wants to modulate insect health — for example, supplying essential nutrients and vitamins lacking in the insect’s diet — with its proprietary technology. This system, Invaio Sciences claims, can deliver bioactive molecules to precise insects populations using 3D-printed injection tips that deliver biological active molecules into a crop vascular system.
This could eventually lead to a drop in pesticide use.
“One of the enormous consequences that comes from the over one billion pounds of insecticides used every year in the United States alone is that the volume of harmful chemicals unleashed is impacting the quality of the food supply and human health as well as the broader environment,” said Invaio Sciences president and CEO Ignacio Martinez in a statement. “Through a focus on natural-based solutions and precision delivery and its connection to plant and soil health, Invaio’s revolutionary approach will refine agricultural practices in a far more sustainable and beneficial way.”
Invaio Sciences will be led by Flagship Pioneering executive chairman Robert Berendes, general partner Ignacio Martinez and chief scientific officer Gerardo Ramos.
This is Flagship Pioneering's fourth agriscience company after Inari Agriculture, Indigo Ag and CiBO Technologies.
