A new St. Louis agtech startup led by a familiar name locally is rapidly building out its operations, expanding to a team of 14 employees with an office overseas.
The new firm, Ferris Genomics, provides DNA analysis of plant samples to help agriculture firms improve breeding operations and better predict growing outcomes for crops. Ferris also provides analysis for animal breeding operations.
Ferris is led by CEO Bryan Witherbee, who also leads St. Louis agtech startup Agragene, a developer of technology that sterilizes flies for pest control. Witherbee formerly was CEO of now-defunct biotechnology startup Adarza Biosystems, which had raised nearly $55 million from investors before folding in 2021.
Ferris says its technology provides “high-throughput, high-content, cost-sensitive DNA analysis” that allows for faster analysis and access to more data for customers focused on plant and animal breeding. Witherbee said Ferris has provided services to several local agriculture firms, including Aferna Bio, Edison Agrosciences, Agragene, LoneWolf Genetics and Saluna. In January, Ferris said it has formed a partnership with genomics company Gencove to use the New York-based firm’s technology with its own to provide customers with “end-to-end genomics sequencing services.” Ferris is headquartered at the Helix Center Biotech Incubator in the 39 North innovation district in Creve Coeur.
In addition to Witherbee, founders of Ferris include Kieran Curran, vice president of engineering; John Daly, European Union site lead; Pat Sullivan, vice president of research and development; and Scott Weigel, vice president of sales. Its founders have prior experience at several major life sciences firms, including Pfizer, Monsanto and MilliporeSigma.
Curran and Daly, who Witherbee said he met while working at Monsanto, are based in Ireland, where Ferris has opened a lab in Limerick. Witherbee said it’s important for Ferris to have a location in Europe to be able to provide a quick turnaround of its DNA analysis to customers located overseas.
Ferris’ founders began to stealthily work on the company about a year ago and launched the firm this past fall, Witherbee said. He described the early days of Ferris as “four walls and a dream,” but the startup has expanded quickly to 14 employees. It’s a staff that Witherbee said has prior experience in agriculture breeding operations, with employees having previously worked at companies including Monsanto, Corteva and Creve Coeur-based Benson Hill. The team “knows this process well and knows what it means to deliver data on a team as part of a breeding program,” Witherbee said. Ferris is currently hiring for several scientist roles.
While Ferris currently provides outsourced DNA analysis, it plans to expand to also offer a research instrument it would sell to agriculture firms to use its technology in-house. The instrument could be used in academic labs as well as by midsized and larger agriculture firms, Witherbee said. Ferris aims to have a prototype of its instrument developed by this summer and begin to have it tested by firms in the fall. It’s targeting 2025 for commercialization of the instrument. Ferris believes its instrument and technology can help both reduce breeding costs and quicken the process for customers, Witherbee said.
Ferris so far has self-funded its operations. While it has yet to close a financing round, Witherbee said it has been supported with a promissory note from BiGenerator, the investment arm of innovation nonprofit BioSTL.
