Ag Innovation Showcase Honors Biopesticide Developer Pasteuria Bioscience, Inc.
June 24, 2010, St. Louis, MO – Pasteuria Bioscience , a venture-backed biopesticide company focused on the development and commercialization of a platform of natural products for the control of nematodes in agriculture, received the Ag Innovation Showcase “2010 High Yield Business Award.” The award was presented in May at the second annual Ag Innovation Showcase at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO, the world’s largest independent plant science research institute, located in the heartland of American agriculture.
Pasteuria was one of 17 companies on the frontier of agricultural technology from around the world that were chosen to present to an elite audience of venture capitalists and industry experts focused on commercial plant-tech growth. Company presentations were scored on several factors, including evidence of market opportunity, business model and management team, as well as overall presentation style and content.
Kelly Smith, Chief Technology Officer for Pasteuria Bioscience accepted the award – a green lab coat. Based in Alachua, FL, and established in 2003 at the University of Florida’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, Pasteuria is developing products to treat major nematode pests in most agricultural crops. Its first product Econem™, which is EPA registered, was launched into the professionally managed turf grass market in 2010. More information is available at www.pasteuriabio.com.
“We congratulate Pasteuria Bioscience for standing out in a tough competition, which included an array of business plans representing some of the most promising businesses in the plant-tech space across a broad range of industry sectors and geographies,” said Sam Fiorello, President of BioResearch and Development Growth (BRDG) Park, an Ag Showcase sponsor.
As a prime relationship building opportunity for entrepreneurs, companies and investors, the Ag Innovation Showcase has become the leading forum to stimulate strategic deals, partnering opportunities and collaborative business ventures in ag-bio, food and nutrition, biofuels, sustainable materials, clean-tech, information technology and animal health.
Presenting companies and their technologies spanned the spectrum of leading edge agriculture-based commerce addressing major worldwide challenges – renewable energy, crop and livestock productivity, nutrition, water technologies and much more.
In addition to the entrepreneurial companies, attendees at the Ag Innovation Showcase represented a “who’s who in the Ag industry,” ranging from major agricultural companies such as Dow AgroSciences, LLC, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Monsanto, Bunge North America, Pioneer, BASF, Syngenta and Novus to agriculture investors such as US Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Venrock Capital, Finistere Ventures, MPM, TPG Biotech, and Hunt Bioventures, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, plus many elite emerging plant science entrepreneurs from around the country and the world.
The Ag Innovation Showcase, a joint enterprise of BRDG Park (a plant and life science research park on the Danforth Center campus), Nidus, St. Louis County Economic Council, Missouri Biotechnology Association and Missouri Technology Corporation, is produced by Larta Institute, a Los Angeles-based innovation hub that also manages the national commercialization programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institutes of Health.