- Botanical Solution recently announced it raised $6.1 million in Series A funding. These are the details.
Botanical Solution (BSI) — an innovator of sustainable, consistent, and cost-effective Advanced Botanical Materials for agricultural and pharmaceutical applications — announced it has successfully closed $6.1 million in a Series A round led by Otter Capital. And this round of funding will enhance BSI’s value proposition by facilitating the geographic expansion of its current botanical-based products and the development of a new product pipeline derived from its proprietary biotech platform.
For agricultural markets, this Series A round of funding will support the production and sales growth of BSI’s first commercially successful product marketed as BotriStop and its recently announced global brand Quillibrium, which is based on a tissue-cultured tree native to Chile called the Quillaja saponaria.
This product has been used successfully on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables throughout Chile. And Quillibrium was launched in Peru last year with great success and will soon reach growers across Mexico through BSI’s main distribution partner Syngenta. Quillibrium is continuing regulatory progress in the US and will soon initiate registration in additional countries to expand its global footprint. This new funding round will also accelerate the market readiness of new botanical biopesticide products currently in later development stages and enable the expansion of BSI’s R&D pipeline.
For pharmaceutical markets, BSI’s new funding round will vastly increase the quantity of Quillaja saponaria plants that can be grown at BSI’s labs and the sustainable production of billions of doses of gold standard adjuvant QS-21, traditionally obtained from old native trees that are increasingly affected by climate change and strict deforestation laws in Chile. QS-21 is used in Covid-19 and malaria vaccines, as well as a blockbuster shingles vaccine. With this funding round, BSI will become a major supplier of pharmaceutical-grade QS-21.
KEY QUOTES:
“The BSI team is really excited to welcome Otter Capital. We are happy to reconfirm the strong commitment from our current investors, as well. BSI is building strong foundations to deliver the world’s most advanced botanical biopesticides and ensure the supply of the gold standard vaccine adjuvant QS-21.”
— BSI CEO Gastón Salinas
“I am excited to partner with BSI. BSI has established a strong market presence via distribution agreements with Syngenta and effective, profitable products. BSI’s product development platform is efficient and scalable. Botanical products have excellent consistency and BSI’s approach is truly sustainable. These products have applications in two very large markets – agriculture and pharmaceuticals. I am very impressed by the team at BSI and the progress they have made with limited resources under Gastón’s leadership.”
— John Pasquesi, Managing Member at Otter Capital
