Conventional insecticides - spanning from neonicotinoids to organochlorines - are a double-edged sword. They play a vital role in shielding crops from pests but can wreak havoc beyond their targets. Pollinators like bees and butterflies, vital to 75% of global food crops, are in free fall - some bee populations have declined by over 43% in high-insecticide regions due to lethal and sublethal exposures that impair navigation, immunity, and reproduction. Pest resistance to widely used small molecules is also a growing phenomenon, straining our available toolkit for safeguarding yields. This threatens both global food security and biodiversity. Beyond ecosystems, these chemicals can also cause acute intoxication, cancer, neurodegeneration, infertility, and hormonal disruptions in humans, driven by oxidative stress, DNA damage, and systemic inflammation - a problem being increasingly recognised especially in exposed rural populations. The transferability of these insecticides - spreading through soil, water, and trophic chains - amplifies their devastation, making sustainable alternatives non-negotiable.
Improved insect controls have already shown scientific and commercial traction at the proof of concept level. For example, semiochemical approaches have shown commercial success in disrupting pest mating patterns, while novel biological modes of action such as peptides illustrate the scope to achieve species-specific pesticidal targeting. However, the ability of novel modes of action to disrupt the incumbent agrochemical market remains relatively limited. Among the most important constraints in scaling adoption are high costs, coverage limitations, delivery efficacy, and risks of evolutionary ‘escape’. For example, the effective dose required for RNA-based controls remain an order of magnitude away from small molecules, while Bt crops - arguably the most prominent precision insecticide technology to date - have demonstrated a decline in efficacy after multiple growth seasons due to evolved resistance.
We imagine a future where we can protect crops without decimating ecosystems, collapsing food chains, or endangering human health. This is the vision driving our venture creation in this opportunity space: reimagining pest control to build a thriving agricultural sector that aligns with ecological and human health.