Impetus Ag, a St. Louis startup developing new pest control products, has secured $750,000 in funding from an international technology competition.
The St. Louis firm won the $750,000 investment by being named runner-up in the Radicle Natural Plant Protection (NPP) Challenge by UPL, a contest staged by San Diego-based agriculture and food investment firm Radicle Growth and Mumbai, India-based agriculture technology firm UPL Corp. Ltd. Impetus was named runner-up of the contest March 18 at a pitch day event in San Francisco.
Founded in 2018 by BioSTL’s BioGenerator, The Yield Lab and the venture arm of seed supplier KWS, Impetus is developing technology to create novel insect control products. Its goal is to enhance protein technology that has been used in previous pesticide products so that it's more effective at mitigating pests. It is developing both spray-on products as well as technology that would provide insect control through a plant’s seed.
Impetus was one of 237 applicants in the NPP Challenge and among four companies that were chosen to participate in the pitch day event. In the competition, Impetus came in behind Solasta Bio, a United Kingdom-based firm also developing new pest control products. Solasta received a $1 million investment as winner.
Impetus Ag CEO Martha Schlicher said the NPP Challenge, with its focus on new pest control technology, was right in the St. Louis startup’s “wheelhouse.” In addition to securing capital through the contest, Schlicher said Impetus’ runner-up finish also links Impetus to UPL Corp., who will “really work with you to advance some of your work, using their global resources to help you.” UPL says it has more than $5 billion in annual revenue. Its products include seeds, crop protection products, and soil and water technologies.
Schlicher said Impetus received assistance through the NPP Challenge from BioGenerator and St. Louis-based Pluton Biosciences, a startup focused on developing natural products designed to mitigate climate change and reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture. Pluton won the 2022 Radicle Carbon & Soil Challenge by UPL, which also was staged by Radicle Growth and UPL.
“As always, St. Louis supports St. Louis. That’s, to me, also one of the great things of the challenge. I’m sure we wouldn’t have done as well without the help of BioGenerator and Pluton,” Schlicher said.
Impetus Ag plans to use its funding to advance greenhouse testing of its technologies and move toward field testing, with Schlicher saying the company has recently generated promising data around the impact of its technology for crop protection. Schlicher said additional testing and data will “really position us well for Series A investors” as the company seeks additional funding in the future.
Impetus has raised about $7.5 million in funding since its launch. Local investors have included BioGenerator, Yield Lab, Cultivation Capital, Missouri Technology Corp. and St. Louis County Port Authority’s Helix Fund. In 2023, Impetus was named to the latest cohort of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator’s agtech track, which includes using the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to advance technologies focused on climate change. Impetus has seven employees.
