Provivi

About Provivi

Provivi operates in the agricultural chemicals sector, providing farmers with alternatives to traditional insecticides. The company was founded in 2013 by Dr. Pedro Coelho, Dr. Peter Meinhold, and 2018 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, Dr. Frances Arnold. Dr. Arnold, a professor at Caltech, pioneered methods of directed evolution to create new proteins. Dr. Coelho holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech and a Master's from the University of Oxford, with a career focused on developing pheromone-based pest control solutions.

The core of Provivi's business is the development and production of insect pheromones for mating disruption. This preventative method uses dispensers that release species-specific pheromones into a field, which confuses male insects and disrupts their ability to find mates, thereby reducing the pest population in the next generation. This approach avoids harming non-target organisms, including beneficial insects and pollinators. The company's technology, based on biocatalysis and fermentation, is designed to significantly lower the manufacturing cost of pheromones, making them economically viable for large-scale row crops like corn, rice, and soy.

Provivi's product line, under names like Pheron®, includes solutions targeting major agricultural pests such as the Fall Armyworm and the Yellow Stem Borer. Products like "Provivi FAW™" and "Pherogen® Granulo FAW" have received regulatory approval in markets including Mexico and Brazil. The company offers its products in various formulations, such as dispensers for smaller farms and liquid sprays for application with existing farm equipment on larger operations. Its business model involves both direct-to-farmer sales and strategic partnerships with major agricultural companies like Syngenta and Godrej Agrovet for distribution and commercialization in global markets, including Indonesia, India, and Mexico.

Since its inception, Provivi has raised over $230 million in funding across multiple rounds. Key investors include the Gates Foundation, BASF Venture Capital, Kairos Ventures, and Temasek. This capital has supported product development, regulatory approvals, and commercial launches. For instance, a 2022 pilot program in Guanajuato, Mexico, demonstrated the effectiveness of its mating disruption technique on corn crops. After its first commercial year in Mexico, the company reported serving over 1,000 growers across 100,000 hectares.