Quercus Biosolutions, an ag biotech startup using AI to create a new category of crop protection products based on designer mini proteins, has raised an oversubscribed $5 million seed round led by Serra Ventures.
Other backers include Starshot Capital, Grantham Foundation, Flyover Capital, Rootstock Capital, Iowa Corn Opportunities Fund, South Dakota Corn’s AgriCap Fund, Kentucky Corn, AgVentures Alliance, and Ag Startup Engine.
As resistance to legacy chemical herbicides spreads and biologicals struggle to scale, Quercus is deploying AI tools first developed in drug discovery from partner Ordaos Bio to design proteins that can bind to validated biological targets in weeds and other pests.
Founded in 2024 by ag industry veterans Jon Lightner PhD, and Matt Crisp, Quercus has developed five active programs with multiple field trials now underway, Lightner told AgFunderNews.
“At this point, we’re focusing on existing validated biological targets such as enzymes that make something that the plant requires to grow or to live. But because we’re using proteins, we bind [to these targets] in a different way [than traditional chemical herbicides using small molecules]. Protein-protein interactions can be quite different in the way they interact with that target to inhibit its activity.
“So at an existing site of action that has a chemical inhibitor where there is evolved chemical resistance, if we inhibit that enzyme differently by our protein-protein interaction, then that evolved chemical resistance won’t confer resistance to our approach, and therefore, from a farmer perspective, this really is a new tool.
He added: “We’re trying to build broad solutions that control multiple problem weeds in the field.”
According to Lightner: “Growers in major row crop systems have watched their most dependable [herbicide] options narrow season by season, while the alternatives that promise a cleaner profile have not consistently matched the efficacy legacy tools have delivered.
“That gap, between the performance growers expect and what regulators and food markets increasingly require, is where Quercus has chosen to start.”
‘A truly remarkable cap table’
To speed up the R&D process and keep the cost of goods down, Quercus factors in practical constraints such as manufacturability into the design of its proteins from the outset. It is now working with experts in precision fermentation on microbes that can excrete its designer proteins into the fermentation broth, rather than having to break open cells to get at them, making the downstream process simpler and cheaper, said Lightner.
“We’re building for that producibility from the beginning, rather than as an afterthought.”
The latest capital injection enables Quercus to expand the number of targets in its herbicide program, further build its IP portfolio, and explore the potential of its tech beyond weeds into products tackling fungi, insects and other pests, he added.
As for the go-to-market strategy, he said, “We expect to partner at multiple layers in the system including the big seed chemistry companies, but also with people who touch farmers more directly, so the retail chain cooperatives and more regional players.”
Cofounder Matt Crisp added: “We’re now in what I would call a translational stage where we are past the discovery early-stage research and with the proceeds of this round, we will commence regulatory work and start to advance at least one product into the late development stages.
“We can produce the proteins [via microbial fermentation] in simple organisms such as E. coli or Pichia type systems without any post-translational modifications, so it’s highly scalable, low cost, and we’ve got multiple third parties engaged that are doing cost of goods and scale up assessments.”
Flipping the script on crop protection
Rob Schultz, managing partner at lead investor Serra Ventures, told AgFunderNews that Serra had been an active investor in agtech since 2014 but had not invested in input startups “due to the unknown cost and timeline profiles associated with discovering novel chemistry or biology.”
Quercus’ genAI approach “flipped the script on our historical concerns,” he said. “At our time of investment, Quercus had already demonstrated plant uptake and mobility, made significant progress on greenhouse validation, and shown a rapid design-iteration loop that let them move quickly from target to candidate.
“That speed on their first target was a strong signal to us that the platform could generalize – that the same discovery engine could be pointed at multiple programs at once rather than needing to be rebuilt for each one.”
He added: “We led this round due to the rare combination of a genuinely differentiated platform, a significant market opportunity desperate for innovation, a team that has built and scaled high-value enterprises in this space before, and an advisory bench as strong as any we have seen at this stage.”
As for an exit strategy, he said, “Realistically, most companies in this space find their way to one of the major players eventually; that’s the nature of a scale-and-distribution-driven industry. What we like about Quercus is that its platform gives it real optionality in how and when that happens, rather than being boxed into one path.”
Dan Kerr, managing partner at investor Flyover Capital, added: “What stood out to us wasn’t any single data point, but the combination of early technical progress and a team with the scientific depth and industry experience to turn that progress into real products.
“What excites us is that they’ve built a platform with the potential to generate multiple product opportunities.”
Designer proteins
Several firms in ag biologicals now use mini proteins, also known as peptides or micropeptides (small chains of amino acids) rather than living microorganisms for crop protection purposes, citing increased stability, precision, and consistency.
However most players typically screen libraries of naturally occurring proteins to identify those with potential to target pests or perform other crop protection functions, claimed Lightner.
Quercus, by contrast, is using AI to design mini proteins from scratch, he said. “We look at all possible proteins, model all possible structures, and then test and build subsets of those in a days-long process for computational testing. We can then produce them via cell-free expression for testing in vitro the next day.
“We’re building our assays around head-to-head comparisons with the best current chemical solutions. We think we’ll create an equally large crop protection category that’s based entirely on these novel proteins, with all the favored regulatory and environmental advantages of biologicals, but also a rock solid, consistent efficacy of the kind that people have achieved with chemistry in agriculture.”
Further reading:
Moa Technology raises $30m to advance novel modes of action in weed management
The post Exclusive: Quercus Biosolutions closes $5m seed round to target resistant weeds with designer proteins appeared first on AgFunderNews.
