Evolution is a blessing and a curse. The same natural phenomenon that gave humans opposable thumbs also threatens farmers’ crop outputs by giving pests better resistance to pesticides every year.
“If you’re getting a flu vaccine, you don’t think about what flu strain is out there; someone has thought about it in the back end, and has made the vaccine. We want to be that for the farmer.”
Evolution may be the problem, but Molagri thinks it can also contribute to the solution. The Toronto-based startup is developing a way to “evolve” pesticides alongside pests, lowering the risk of resistance. The startup was founded by Zaky Hassan and Min Jin, two PhD candidates from the University of Toronto specializing in common cold coronaviruses. The two are set to pitch their idea to investors at Y Combinator’s Demo Day on Sept. 10.
“Our plan is to kick off our seed raise, raise some more money, and come back to Toronto with a war chest to hire more scientists and … eventually make products that farmers are going to love,” Hassan told BetaKit in an interview.
The founding duo were fascinated by recent AI-driven advancements in protein design, and are now using those advancements to synthesize targeted pesticides that can actually keep up with the pace at which pests become resistant. Built on top of a non-infectious insect virus, Molagri can engineer its pesticide’s targeted proteins to “whitelist” and “blacklist” targets, and can easily tweak its formulation to stay ahead of anticipated pest resistance.
“If you’re getting a flu vaccine, you don’t think about what flu strain is out there; someone has thought about it in the back end, and has made the vaccine,” Hassan said. “We want to be that for the farmer.”
Hassan and Jin developed the concept for Molagri independent of U of T, and went searching for Canadian investors to fund it. They were ultimately unsuccessful on that front, which Hassan attributed to the risk aversion of Canadian investors. However, they did manage to court $1 million USD ($1.4 million CAD) in pre-seed funding from US-based deeptech VC Julian Capital and Y Combinator. That was enough to kickstart the company, secure lab space in MaRS Discovery District, and hire a scientist to work on the vision of evolutionary pesticides.
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While still in the early stages, Molagri’s wedge product is currently aimed at tree nuts and tree fruits, because they have an “acute insecticide need,” Hassan said. This places much of Molagri’s initial focus on California, where many tree nuts and fruits are grown. Still, Hassan plans to grow the company in Canada and eventually make Molagri the pesticide producer of choice for farmers around the world.
“I’m a big proponent of people building bio companies in Canada, in Toronto, and I feel like we have to do that to ensure that we have a strong ecosystem,” Hassan said. “I’m seeing all these brilliant postdocs [and] grad students that can do great things … it’s a crazy place for talent.”
Feature image courtesy Zaky Hassan via LinkedIn.
