An agriculture technology startup spun out earlier this year from the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has raised $1.2 million to advance its research and development initiatives.
Peptyde Bio, which is developing natural fungicides to protect crops from disease, raised $1.2 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round. Investors in the startup include Danforth Technology Co., St. Louis Arch Angels, BioGenerator Ventures and QRM Capital.
Peptyde began operations earlier this year and is the first company established by the Danforth Technology Co., a new subsidiary launched by the Danforth Center with a goal of creating startups from its campus in Creve Coeur.
Co-founded by Danforth Center Principal Investigators Dilip Shah and Kirk Czymmek, Peptyde is focused on discovering and designing novel antimicrobial peptides, which are proteins that plants naturally produce and that protect them from diseases. Peptyde plans to partner with agricultural businesses that can use its peptides to commercialize new fungicides that can serve as alternatives to chemical pesticide products.
Acting CEO Tom Laurita said Peptyde’s team currently includes six full-time Ph.D. scientists. While they are focused on Peptyde’s operations, the scientists are employees of the Danforth Center, as part of a research agreement it has with Peptyde. In addition, Peptyde’s team includes Shah as chief science officer and Czymmek as chief technology officer.
Laurita said the pre-seed funding for Peptyde will help fund its discovery of novel peptides while also assisting in its development of technology aimed at speeding up its process of identifying and designing peptides that can be used as fungicides to help plants stave off diseases.
While Peptyde is in its early stages of operations, Laurita said the company has already garnered attention from agricultural businesses.
“There’s a lot of interest from industry and that’s been manifested in many different outreaches from industry and interactions with industry,” he said.
