Optera
Year founded: 2020
No. of employees: 2 full-time, additional interns
Top executives: Kaira Wagoner, CEO and co-founder; Phoebe Snyder, chief operating officer and co-founder
Website: https://opterabees.com/
Contact: hello@opterabees.com
You are probably familiar with pheromones because the chemical substances in humans are often linked to attraction. But did you know that still-developing bees can use their pheromones to let other bees know if they are sick?
Then, other worker bees can remove the infected bee to protect the rest of the hive in a process called hygienic behavior.
This hygienic behavior is the basis of Greensboro-based Optera’s business.
Triad Inno Startups to Watch: Optera
Optera, a UNC-Greensboro spin-off created by Kaira Wagoner and Phoebe Snyder, produces UBeeO – which stands for unhealthy bee odor – a pheromone cocktail that can be applied to hives to detect for infection from a deadly parasitic mite called the Varroa destructor.
“[The varroa mite] is almost entirely responsible for the average of 40% of hive losses that beekeepers experience each year,” Snyder said. “Because they’re little tiny bees, I don’t think many people are aware of it as they would be if, say, we lost 40% of our cattle each year.”
UBeeO, as a selective breeding tool and informant of mite management strategy, helps beekeepers score how well the baby bees – known as brood – responds to the pheromones.
“If the bees uncap a lot of brood cells in the hive, it is very hygienic and they’re able to resist mites on their own,” Snyder explained. “And if they score very low, a beekeeper will need to monitor them more closely and treat them more often to save that hive.”
Optera is the result of Wagoner’s 10-year research project and was officially launched in early 2020.
In the almost three years of business, Optera has made much progress in getting UBeeO ready to go to market, with an expected launch in spring 2024.
Optera has had five collaborators in seven countries, including in the U.S., Belgium and Australia. Snyder said that its product was tested on about 2,000 hives last season and that Optera will soft-launch this upcoming season for local beekeepers.
Optera has been involved with UNCG’s I-Corps program and completed Launch Greensboro’s LaunchLab Growth accelerator and its Capital Connects pitch competition.
The company has also secured approximately $400,000 in funding, according to Snyder. This includes a $250,000 National Science Foundation Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant and a $75,000 One North Carolina Small Business Program matching grant.
Currently, Optera is applying for a Phase II STTR grant of $1 million. Snyder expects to hear back by the summer.
Even without the potential of a $1 million grant, 2023 appears to be a promising year for Optera.
The company has been developing an applicator for UBeeO that will take preparation time down from 10 minutes to a handful of seconds. This year, Optera will test the applicator and work with local beekeepers on the whole process from application to data processing. Snyder said that Optera will hire a part-time beekeeper to assist.
In addition, Optera recently opened pre-orders and Snyder said the company has received much more than expected – almost 150 beekeepers have pre-ordered almost 3,000 tests, she said.
Snyder said that the expected retail for an applicator would be approximately $40 and she hopes to keep the pheromone cocktail under $20 per hive, as beekeeping is already expensive. She also said that she expects to bundle the applicator and pheromones into a kit for first-time purchasers.
Almost of Optera’s materials – from the applicator to the chemicals – will be sourced from North Carolina, Snyder said.
Snyder also said she has an idea for an app that will automatically score a hive’s response to UBeeO, but that will be further down the road as Optera focuses on getting UBeeO to market.
Q&A with Phoebe Snyder
What is it like being a university spin-off company?
We have a huge advantage having the university backing, certainly with getting funding. Without Kaira’s 10 years of research prior to applying for the STTR grant, I’m not sure that we would’ve gotten it if we were newer technology and had not had all the evidence that it is a commercially viable tool. Additionally, the amount of resources that were available to us and the amount programs that we’ve been in … have helped us be more successful and be more prepared. Without that type of support, I don’t think we’d be able to be here right now.
Do you plan to keep Optera in the Triad?
We’re dedicated to keeping our business local. Eventually we’re going to need a product and packaging specialist, for example, and we want to keep everything as local as possible – in Greensboro and within the state. We recognize how helpful people like Lou Anne Flanders-Stec [from Launch Greensboro] and UNCG have been. It certainly could be cheaper to do it in India or China, but we want to keep things local – that’s something we’re proud of.
Do you get stung by a lot of bees?
All the time. Kaira does a better job than me of suiting up – I'd rather get stung than be hot. It’s not uncommon for me to take 10 to 20 stings a day. You get used to it, although face and hand stings are the worst. Beekeeping is not pretty – you’re hot and sweaty, covered in honey, getting stung. You really have to love it to stick with it.
