Davis-based biological pest management technology company Pheronym has received $242,000 in seed funding led by the Sacramento Angels investment group.
Other investors include Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. founder Pam Marrone, Rocklin entrepreneur and local investor Mark Haney and Monte Bottens, who runs the Ag Solutions Network based in Moline, Illinois.
"We are thrilled to back a female-led, local company on the cutting edge of innovation in ag-tech,” said John Peters, president of the Sacramento Angels.
The investment signals local investor support for biologics, an industry where the Sacramento region is a worldwide hub for technology advancement.
Pheronym is led by CEO and co-founder Fatma Kaplan, who received grant funding in 2019 to send a study project to the International Space Station to observe the effects of zero gravity on roundworms, also known as nematodes.
On Earth, the company is developing patented pest control products using naturally occurring soil nematodes, which the company’s technology can control using pheromones that repel harmful nematodes and also stimulate beneficial nematodes that kill harmful insects.
In the past five years, Pheronym has raised nearly $900,000 in grant money. It has also raised a total of $325,000 from being in San Francisco-based IndieBio’s Cohort 5 and the Los Gatos-based SVG Thrive AgriFood Accelerator program.
With the new investment, the company has raised nearly $1.5 million in investments, grants and from accelerator programs.
The Sacramento region is home to more than 100 seed development companies and is a worldwide hub for the development of biological controls to decrease the use of fertilizer and harmful chemicals in agriculture. Largely because of the talent and research at the University of California Davis, the Sacramento region has attracted labs for companies including German chemical giants Bayer AG and BASF SE, Swiss chemical company Syngenta, French ag company Limagrain, Danish biotech company Novozymes and rare plant material extract company Botanical Solution Inc. as well as homegrown companies such as Arcadia Biosciences Inc. (Nasdaq: RKDA), Marrone Bio (Nasdaq: MBII) and BioConsortia Inc.
Unfold, a new spinoff from Bayer and a partner, just leased space in Davis for a research and development lab to develop vertical indoor farming technology.
