NCBiotech portfolio companies tackle big agtech needs
Rubbing elbows in a unique Raleigh corporate incubator are founders of a firm with AI-powered genetic technology for hire, a startup that’s engineering plants to fight cattle burping, and a developer of natural, biodegradable pellets and seed coatings to improve application of agricultural pesticides and nutrients.
But all have a lot more in common than their Raleigh roots and elbow-rubbing proximity.
All three are North Carolina Biotechnology Center portfolio companies, meaning they’ve received loans from NCBiotech. And they’re in an elite group of agricultural technology startups spearheading the state’s push to lead the world in agtech.
They’re also part of the North Carolina State University-based North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative’s (N.C. PSI’s) Seed2Grow startup program, which helps researchers, alumni and others translate their ideas and discoveries into viable products and services that benefit global agriculture.
The program, housed in NC State’s Plant Sciences Building, includes seven North Carolina startups tapping into university and industry expertise and resources to help them commercialize their technologies.
Their work takes place in one of the world’s most advanced plant sciences facilities, opened on the Centennial Campus in Raleigh in April 2022 with specialized laboratories, core facilities and this new business incubator.
Elysia Bio
One of the NCBiotech portfolio companies there is Elysia Bio, founded in 2021 by Raleigh native and CEO Eli Hornstein, Ph.D. Though it echoes the mythical Elysian Fields, Hornstein says the name Elysia instead leans into the biotech aspect of the business.
The company is officially named in honor of Elysia chlorotica, a green sea slug found in Atlantic coastal waters, including those of North Carolina. It has an unusual ability to consume chloroplasts from algae and, like a plant, use photosynthesis from sunlight as food. “Elysia the company, just like Elysia the sea slug, is all about using plants to do seemingly impossible things for animal nutrition,” Hornstein explains.
Elysia Bio is developing its own awe-inspiring technology in the form of genetically engineered feed and pasture plants, such as corn, sorghum and ryegrass. Elysia’s plants include genetic pathways to produce specialized compounds that make the plants perform better as feed. That includes a trait that reduces the effects of methanogenic microorganisms in the guts of ruminant livestock such as cattle, sheep and goats.
That technology mimics the naturally occurring ability of some plant materials, such as seaweed, orange peels and garlic, to reduce methane production during ruminant digestion. But seaweed, orange peels and garlic don’t just grow on trees everywhere. Hornstein says his technique is more efficient, providing farmers access to familiar and cost-effective ways to minimize methane emanating from their livestock.
“Most remarkably, by putting our traits into pasture grasses, we plan to bring methane elimination to the vast majority of cattle that can’t easily use drugs or additives,” notes Hornstein.
“These pasture-based cattle make up 90% or more of all animals worldwide and because they don’t eat carefully mixed feed or see the farmer every day, it has been hard to deliver current methane technology to them. However, every cow, everywhere on earth, has to eat plants every day.”
Animals are the second-biggest source of methane emissions after the natural gas industry, says Hornstein. For example, the average cow belches some 220 pounds of methane a year. “It’s more than all shipping plus all air travel plus all deforestation.”
One of the key problems associated with ruminants’ digestion is the energy lost to this methane production. Elysia and another NC State startup, Hoofprint Biome, are working on improved health and weight/dairy gain through diverting more feed intake into the animals’ digestive systems and less nutrient loss from plant carbon being converted into burped gas.
NCBiotech awarded Elysia a $100,000 small business research loan (SRL) in 2023. Elysia has since been awarded about $1 million in additional funding from NSF I-Corps, Spark Climate, and the Activate Fellowship, and recently announced its first venture capital investment from Safar Partners in Boston.
Hoofprint, on the other hand, has not sought an NCBiotech loan because it found major funding from outside investors. That included a $4.25 million pre-seed round when it was co-founded in 2023. That was followed in April 2025 by a $15 million Series A round. As a result, it recently became the first Seed2Grow company to “graduate” from the incubator program, thanks to its feed additives containing probiotic microorganisms that reduce methane production in ruminants’ guts.
Soteria Formulations
Another NCBiotech portfolio company in the Seed2Grow program is Soteria Formulations. The company uses lignocellulosic biomass to make pelleted plant-based granules that deliver controlled, eco-friendly applications of pesticides and crop nutrients. It’s also developing seed-coating formulations to deliver extended-release pesticides, nutrients and plant growth promoters.
NCBiotech provided Soteria and co-founder and CEO Tahira Pirzada, Ph.D., a $100,000 SRL in 2024 to help her commercially scale production of the products.
“Soteria Formulations' vision is to build a scalable platform that redefines crop protection by delivering sustainable, high-performing solutions with clear value for growers and strong long-term returns for our partners and investors,” explained Pirzada.
“Farming can be both high-performing and environmentally responsible and that’s the future we’re building. We are not just claiming this. Our foundational technology has been third-party validated via multi-year field trials for various crops and agricultural “actives,” both chemicals & biologics, in diverse climate zones.”
Pirzada is bringing her global experience to agtech companies and investors that recognize the value of NCBiotech’s vetting process for loans.
“We’re currently looking for funding to develop farming-equipment-compatible products and manufacturers of agrochemical and agrobiological active ingredients as our partners to co-formulate their existing and new actives,” she said.
“Our journey has been significantly shaped by the support of North Carolina’s innovation ecosystem, especially NCBiotech and N.C. PSI. NCBiotech has provided critical financial resources that helped advance our research and refine our formulations, to position us for regulatory and market readiness. This partnership has enabled us to validate our technology through greenhouse and field trials, connect with growers and industry stakeholders, and accelerate our path from the lab to the marketplace.
“N.C. PSI's support has been instrumental, providing resources, mentoring and connections that helped us position Soteria Formulations within North Carolina’s thriving agtech ecosystem. Together, NCBiotech and N.C. PSI have given Soteria the entrepreneurial momentum needed to scale a technology with the potential to sustainably transform agriculture globally.”
Raleigh Biosciences
The third Seed2Grow portfolio company, Raleigh Biosciences, is working to commercialize an artificial-intelligence-powered suite of services to help plant scientists optimize plant gene expression to streamline trait improvements.
In 2023, the year President Rosangela (Ross) Sozzani, Ph.D., co-founded Raleigh Biosciences, NCBiotech awarded the company a $200,000 loan to help it develop the platform. That same year, the other co-founder, pioneering plant geneticist Philip Benfey, Ph.D., died of cancer at the age of 70. His legacy continues to inspire the field.
Honoring Benfey’s brilliance, Sozzani is advancing Raleigh Biosciences’ cutting-edge tools to analyze the genes of individual plant cells and reveal how they function in space and time.
“Our company combines state-of-the-art gene expression approaches with AI and engineering strategies to precisely tune gene activity for traits with spatio-temporal relevance,” explained Sozzani. “Using proprietary technologies for high-throughput testing and plant regeneration, including innovations such as plant 3D cell bioprinting, Raleigh Biosciences can design and optimize DNA sequences that improve plant traits, like making crops more resistant to diseases or grow better in different environments.”
After the 2003 loan, NCBiotech also awarded Raleigh Biosciences a $4,000 Industrial Internship grant in 2024.
The other four companies in the Seed2Grow program have received funding from numerous sources, such as the One NC Small Business Program, the Small Business Innovation Research program within the National Science Foundation, and others. They are Benanova, Rooted-in-tech, Verdia Diagnostics and Ceretune.
N.C. PSI’s entrepreneurial programs, led by Director of Innovation Partnerships Kathleen Denya, Ph.D., are designed to complement services provided by NC State’s Office of Research Commercialization. NC State has helped launch over 190 startups since the 1980s.
"It’s exciting to watch the N.C. PSI Seed2Grow program generate global recognition and interest in North Carolina’s agtech community," said Paul Ulanch, Ph.D., senior director with NCBiotech’s Focused Initiatives Team.
"These affiliated startups are exploring solutions to grand challenges for agriculture,” he said. “Through the program, NC State has proven to lead in supporting the translation of ideas to practice that may benefit farmers and even consumers.”