Metabolic insights
harnessing evolution to increase agricultural crops
Metabolic Insights develops novel environmental-friendly pesticides of plant origin, applying biological screening. The company won the EU seal of excellence and cooperates with the Weizmann Institute of Science, facing a global Markt.
40% of funding target
Highlights
Highlights
Long-awaited innovative products that disrupts the market
Conventional chemistry-based compounds are facing a drastic drop in innovation, increased regulatory pressure and prohibitive cost of development, reaching hundreds of millions of dollars to bring a single synthetic product to market! Hundreds of products are no longer permitted while introduction of new synthetic compounds has dropped to fewer than 5 compounds per year. These combined factors are bringing the focus onto bio-based sustainable pesticides, and they are recognized as the most promising solution to meet future demand.
Products generated from natural compounds are expected to disrupt the traditional pesticides market, as presently the synthesis of novel molecules is costly, limiting the market to a select few players.
By using chemical capabilities found in nature, Metabolic Insights opens the market so that even small to medium-sized companies can license and use the novel molecules, leading to drastic change within the entire pesticides market.
Proven concept and strategic partnership with Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS)
Within a short time, Metabolic Insights had identified multiple active compounds against numerous pests and started running tests in growth chambers and in greenhouses operated by the company. Metabolic Insights now have a validated platform and multiple patents pending for approval, generating strong interest from potential customers as leading companies in Europe, China, Japan, Asia, and the U.S. have already started testing the products. To overcome certain technological hurdles the company works in cooperation with Yeda, the commercialization Arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science laboratory of plant metabolism, which also holds equity in the company.
On growing interest and support from industry leaders
Metabolic Insights’ robust technology and proven potential has already generated increasing interest in the company’s products and drawn the attention of leading organizations, awarding the company with a seal of excellence by the EU commission and the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development. In addition, work at Metabolic Insights is accelerated by Startlife, the accelerator of Wageningen University in the Netherlands – the world leader in agriculture. In the early stage the company was accelerated by Yakhin Group Impact, a business incubator for entrepreneurs who develop novel solutions that can change the face of agriculture both in Israel and around the world.
Vast market with significant growth potential
The total yearly market for pesticides is evaluated at dozens of billions of dollars, with a relatively low CAGR. The new bio-pesticides market is evaluated at few billions of dollars, and it is growing at an extremely fast CAGR as it is expected to tap into a significant proportion of the pesticides market by 2028.
Within bio-based solutions, those with plant metabolites are the most promising, as most plant metabolites are channeled towards protection against diseases and pests. This vast potential has not been tapped yet due to the more complex process involved in extraction, testing, evaluation, and production, but the market is eager for change and for a new generation of eco-friendly pesticides, and this is provided by Metabolic Insights’ solution.
Leading team highly experienced
The company’s leading team is composed of wworld-class chemists, biologists, filed experts and managers. Both founders, Ido Korman and David Panik, hold accumulative experience of dozens of years in development, technology, plant metabolism, chemistry, and biotechnology. Ido, who is also a farmer and instructor, has previously worked in senior positions at Stockton Group and ADAMA, while David has more than 15 years of experience in research and R&D at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, WIS, and Evogene Ltd. Amir Noy, the company’s CEO, has more than 20 years of international business experience in senior positions within the tech and medical field, establishing sales operations in Israel and abroad. His previous position was the CEO of Alpha BioTech Ltd.
Pitch
Pitch
In recent years, the pesticide market is going through a revolution, as the market moves away from conventional chemistry-based compounds toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly products. This is influenced by some important trends, such as a significant drop in approval of synthetic products and a decrease in the rate of new active pesticides introduced each year, creating a deficit creating a deficit of hundreds of compounds.
With fewer products available to farmers, and crop productivity in danger, there is an urgent need for more sustainable solutions. Moreover, bringing a synthetic product to market costs hundreds of millions of dollars and takes more than a decade. With this current reality, bio-pesticides based on botanical molecules are already being seen as the most promising solution for the future, as the market is systematically moving from synthetic to bio-pesticides.
Solution
Each plant produces about 20,000 different molecules. In total over 2 million, most of them unknown. About 70% of plant metabolites are channelled towards protection against diseases and pests as well as mitigating various stressful conditions. This vast potential of millions of molecules has not yet been tapped, due to the higher complexity involved in extraction, testing and upscaling. However, it has the potential to revolutionize crop health product offerings. New compounds of plant origin are also likely to use new and multiple MOA (mode of action of a molecule on the target pest) as the market needs new MOA to face developing resistance of pests.
Metabolic Insights offer newly discovered, single-molecule and other type of compounds, extracted from plants that show powerful pesticide activity, to meet the growing demand for sustainable crop protection solutions. The company has created a validated, innovative, and unique platform for systematically developing botanical bio-pesticides, and the products are offered to agrochemical companies.
Technology
Metabolic Insights develops novel environmental-friendly pesticides from plant origin. The company efficiently screen molecules from various plants and identify and develop those that have high potential against important agricultural pests and meet a long list of multi-disciplinary requirements, such as the ability to be produced economically in mass production. The company runs its proprietary testing methods to select the most promising molecules and have filed patents for the use of 8 novel compounds.
This robust set of competences coupled with a unique collaboration through Yeda (who also holds equity in Metabolic Insights) with the laboratory of plant metabolism in Weizmann Institute of Science enable the company to offer several benefits in harnessing their technology for the benefit of customers, including:
- Offering the customer professional support all the way to market, including production scheme
- Revolutionizing the entire process of bringing pesticides to the market
- Significantly reducing costs and the time to market from average of 12 to 5 years
- Allowing smaller companies to develop innovative products due to lower costs and time to market
- Address the growing organic food market
- Benefitting from more favourable regulatory processes allowed for botanical pesticides across multiple regions
Team
Team
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Formerly 6 years at Stk Bio-Ag Technologies as VP for development and technology. Before that he held senior strategy and development positions for 8 years at ADAMA and then spent 4 years working on World Bank projects as the Professional Support Manager for Developing Countries. Mr. Korman is also a grower of fruits and flowers.
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Holds a PhD from Hebrew University Jerusalem, and a post-doctorate from WIS. He has 15 years of R&D experience in chemistry, plant metabolism, biotechnology, molecular biology, and genetics at Evogene and other academic work.
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