Brazil's successful plant-pathogen genome project has brought the country into the new world of biotech. And its venture capitalists may be moving in, too. Two spin-offs from the genome project have become the first high-tech companies in Brazil to attract a private investor.
The founders of Alellyx, a spin-off from Brazil's plant-pathogen genomes project.
CREDIT: EDUARDO CÉSAR/FAPESP
The funding comes from Votorantim Ventures, a branch of a huge Brazilian industrial conglomerate, which plans to spend $120 million on such companies. The first beneficiaries are Alellyx and Scylla, two firms founded by professors at the University of Campinas in São Paulo, home of the pathogen genome project.
Alellyx intends to develop technology from the genomes of such plants as the orange, sugar cane, grape, soybean, and eucalyptus. Molecular biologist Paulo Arruda, one of the five founders, says the company will receive $12 million over 5 years from Votorantim "to provide the technology that the Brazilian agricultural industry needs." The second company hopes to use an undisclosed initial Votorantim investment to develop bioinformatics software to sell to agricultural biotech companies.
The genome project was launched in 1997 by the State of São Paulo's science-supporting agency FAPESP, the richest one in the country. But moving those results into the marketplace, says Arruda, "would have been very difficult without the support of venture capitalists."
