The former head of St. Louis investor BioGenerator Ventures has joined a local agriculture startup as CEO.
Solis Agrosciences said Thursday that Charlie Bolten, former president of BioGenerator, has been named CEO. It also announced Susan Martino-Catt has been appointed chief operating officer.
Bolten departed BioGenerator, the startup creation and investment arm of local innovation hub nonprofit BioSTL, in early November. He has existing ties to Solis, which launched out of BioGenerator with Bolten as one of its co-founders and a board member.
“Solis wouldn’t exist without Charlie,” said Martha Schlicher, Solis co-founder and board chair.
Solis, founded in 2022, is a business-to-business company that provides technology and research services for agriculture companies and researchers. Solis offers what it describes as an end-to-end “plant pipeline as a service” that helps companies develop and implement new crop traits.
Bolten’s new role follows 14 years at BioGenerator, where he had served as president since the start of 2023. Before that, he was senior managing director. At BioGenerator, Bolten led the investment portfolio, launched the BioGenerator Labs and oversaw its Executives in Residence program. He also served on the board of several companies, including chair of agriculture firm CoverCress, which in 2022 sold a majority stake to Germany-based pharmaceutical and agriculture giant Bayer. Other high-profile startups in which he was a board member include Canopy Biosciences, acquired by Bruker Corp. (Nasdaq: BRKR); and Confluence Life Sciences, which sold in 2017 to Aclaris Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACRS) in a $100 million deal.
Bolten most recently worked at pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. before joining BioGenerator in 2009. The decision to join Solis as CEO continues the passion and focus Bolten has had on growing startups in St. Louis in the past 14 years, he said.
“This one has always been really special to me, as someone who was part of it from the beginning and on the board and in those early conversations with Martha just spitballing about what we could build here,” Bolten said. “This has been on the short list of companies I’m really, really excited about. The timing of the opportunity and the progress of the company, the star aligned. It was the right time for me to take this step.”
Martino-Catt joins as Solis’ chief operating officer with previous experience working for several agriculture firms, including local companies Benson Hill (NYSE: BHIL) and Monsanto (now Bayer Crop Science). Bolten said she “brings a tremendous level of experience and credibility” to Solis, specifically in the area of regulatory compliance.
"Having worked across the agtech industry for over 30 years, I see a unique opportunity with Solis," said Martino-Catt. "Our industry needs innovation to meet the economic pressures facing both growers and agtech companies, and Solis can help deliver those new technologies more efficiently than in traditional brick-and-mortar models.
Bolten and Martino-Catt add to a leadership team that also includes President Mary Fernandes and Chief Financial Officer Dustin Snyder. Tom Cohen has previously held the CEO title at Solis.
“That was clearly understood to be a transitional role as he wears many other hats,” Schlicher said.
Cohen previously was a director at BioGenerator and is currently co-founder and chief operating officer at St. Louis-based Panome Bio. Schlicher said the decision to hire Bolten came as Solis sought to have a CEO who could develop a growth strategy and led it through possible fundraising and M&A deals.
Solis has positioned itself as offering a new model in the agriculture technology sector in which companies can turn to a third-party to provide technology and research services. It's a model that has been implemented in other sectors such as information technology and the pharmaceutical industry with contract research organizations. Solis raised financing from a number of investors, with its lead investors including Herman Cos.; BioGenerator; and Saloniki Investments, an entity affiliated with St. Louis serial entrepreneur Jim McKelvey. Other investors in the company are QRM Capital, St. Louis Arch Angels, Missouri Technology Corp., St. Louis County Port Authority's Helix Fund, CIG Spectrum and undisclosed angel investors.
Solis, which has its headquarters at the Helix Center Biotech Incubator, in 2022 acquired Wildwood-based Fahr Greenhouse in a deal that added greenhouse and field testing services to its portfolio.
Bolten said he and Martino-Catt will focus on developing a longer term growth strategy for Solis as they enter their new leadership roles. He said the company has a strong base to build upon.
“We have a really strong foundation, strong customer base and strong, specialized service offering,” Bolten said. “This is a real operating company. The success metrics start with the financials and they’ve been really, really strong.”
Solis declined to provide specific financial figures, but said it has more than 20 customers and has had success landing repeat customers. Its clients have included venture-backed firms as well as multinational agriculture companies, Bolten said. Solis has about 20 employees.
Solis, with its services model, has achieved something that can sometimes stymie startups in their early days: generating revenue. While Bolten said that revenue could allow Solis to self-fund its growth, it’s likely to peruse additional capital as it seeks to expand its facilities and services.
“Those kinds of things are going to require capital to move quickly,” he said. “This company could grow organically. It’s a strong business, but I think people are going to want to deploy more capital to grow more quickly.”
