Olfactory biocontrol technology venture Agriodor.com : Founders Alain Thibault and Ené Leppik’s Interview.

Hi Alain,
Congratulations on the EUR 15 million Series A — a landmark moment for Agriodor and a strong signal for the entire biocontrol sector. AgTechNews.com and AgFoodNews.com would like to discuss this milestone with a proper deep- dive — not just a funding announcement, but the full story of what you and Enée have built and where it goes from here. This piece will reach farmers, agronomists, crop protection distributors and agtech investors across both platforms.

VISION & JOURNEY
1 Niranjan Minase – AgTechNews.com : You founded Agriodor in 2019 as an INRAE spin-off. Seven years later you have raised EUR 15 million, achieved a worldwide first in sugar beet fields and signed Syngenta as your distribution partner. What did you believe in 2019 that the rest of the crop protection industry did not — and when did you know the science was genuinely going to work at commercial scale?

Co-Founder & CEO, Alain Thibault said:

What we believed in 2019 is that crop protection could move away from killing insects toward influencing their behaviour. If you look at biology, insects and plants have co-evolved over millions of years, and this interaction is fundamentally driven by chemical communication. Plants emit volatile compounds, and insects use these signals to find hosts, assess plant quality, and decide where to lay eggs, what to eat etc. More broadly, olfaction is one of the most ancient and universal communication systems in living organisms. It is used by bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals.
What we believed, and what was not fully embraced by the industry at the time, is that if we can decode these chemical signals, we can use them to guide insect behaviour and protect crops in a non-lethal way. This was a shift from a “destruction” paradigm to a “behavioural control” paradigm, using what we call the Olfactive Technology.

When did you know the science would work at commercial scale?
The 2 key moments were:
 when we solved formulation and delivery at field scale.
Identifying active molecules is only part of the challenge. The real difficulty is:
releasing them in a controlled way 
maintaining effective concentrations in open-field conditions 
ensuring compatibility with farming practices and cost constraints 
We reached that milestone in 2024, when we deployed our first industrial-scale prototypes in sugar beet fields.
For the first time, we demonstrated that:
we could control the release dynamics of our volatile organic compounds (VOCs) 
we could modify the olfactory environment of the crop during critical periods 
and most importantly, we could reduce aphid population growth in real field conditions 
That was the moment we knew: this is not just good science, it can become a product.
And equally important, we showed that this approach works best when integrated with existing crop protection strategies, delivering real agronomic and economic value to farmers.
When the price and the efficacy were enough for the farmers. We were very excited when a lot of big players wanted to distribute the product and we choose Syngenta for technical and operational reasons. 



2. Ené cracked the olfactory language of insects from the science side. You brought the entrepreneurial engine. How do you two actually make decisions together when the science says one thing and the commercial reality says another?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

What makes our collaboration work is that we are both aligned in energy, but different in perspective. We are both driven by innovation, comfortable with risk, attracted to new ideas and new projects. But where we differ, and where the value comes from, is in how we evaluate those ideas. I bring a technical lens: what is biologically feasible, what can be made robust, what can actually work in the field. Alain brings a market and vision lens: where the value is, how big the opportunity is, and how far the technology could go. Alain is very good at pushing boundaries, challenging what is considered possible today and forcing us to think bigger, faster and smarter. My role is to ensure that we stay grounded in what can really be delivered. This creates a productive tension.

How do we actually make decisions?
At the end of the day, we follow the rule: a project must be both scientifically robust and economically viable. Concretely if something works in the lab but cannot scale or cannot reach a realistic cost, we stop. If a market is very attractive but we cannot reliably control the biology, we stop.

Why this works
The combination is what creates speed and quality, vision alone can lead to unrealistic bets and science alone can lead to over-cautiousness. Together, we ensure that we push the frontier, but only where we can actually deliver.
THE PROBLEM & THE SOLUTION
3.Over 1,000 documented cases of insecticide resistance in aphids alone. Insect biomass down 70–75% in some regions. Up to 40% of insect species at risk of extinction. A farmer reading those numbers might feel helpless. What do you tell that farmer about what Agriodor can do for them — right now, this season?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

First, why the situation looks so difficult today, especially for aphids. Resistance is not random. It is the consequence of how we have been controlling pests. Aphids reproduce by parthenogenesis that is they clone themselves. Their population growth is exponential. When broad-spectrum insecticides are used repeatedly, they kill most individuals but a few naturally resistant ones survive. And because they clone themselves, resistance spreads extremely fast. Over time, the system selects insects that are harder and harder to control.

What Agriodor changes
What we bring with the Olfactive Technology is a different approach: not killing the population, but managing its population dynamics. We act by modifying the olfactory environment of the crop. In practice, we deploy formulations (granules, diffusers, liquids) that release specific volatile compounds and modifying the scent landscape. It acts as a Biological Insurance, preventing pest population build up, or as an Efficacy Booster, enhancing existing control products or programs efficacy. The strategy is adapted to the problem to tackle.

With aphids in sugar beet, it’s a Biological Insurance, creating multiple biological effects, directly on the pest:
1. Repellency : limits winged aphids colonization. A significant part of the aphid population simply avoids the crop, for a lower initial infestation.
2. Feeding disruption : aphids already installed, feed less, limiting virus transmission
3. Reproduction limitation :  because feeding is reduced there is less energy intake, slower development and slower reproduction. In consequence we flatten the population dynamics.
The Olfactive Technology does not apply a lethal pressure, so instead of selecting resistant individuals and accelerating resistance, we stabilize the population.
And in combination with existing tools it becomes very practical for farmers. Using it at early development stages, it allows to shift insecticide treatment threshold to later growth stages, enhancing insecticides efficacy.When combined with insecticides there are fewer insects to control and improved efficacy and ultimately better yield protection.

What it means this season
Lower infestation pressure from the start 
Reduced virus transmission risk 
Slower pest development 
More effective use of existing treatments 

We shift to a population management strategy that keeps the system under control.


4. You achieved a worldwide first by deploying a semiochemical allomone in row crops — sugar beet fields in France. For a farmer who has never heard the word semiochemical, what did that moment actually look like in the field — and what did it mean for their crop that season?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

What was striking is that it didn’t look like “crop protection” in the traditional sense.
The first reaction from farmers was actually very simple: when they opened the bag of granules, it smelled like aromatic plants. Not chemicals, not something aggressive — something familiar and even pleasant. Reminding for some of them the mulled vine (hot wine with spices) we can traditionally find on Christmas markets here ! 
Then, operationally, it was straightforward, put the granules in a spreader and drive through the field. No spraying, no heavy equipment, no specific investment. 

After application, nothing dramatic happens visually at first. No dead insects on the ground.
But over time, what we can observe when we look closely. There are fewer aphids settling in the crop, there is slower population growth and less visible pressure building up.
A second visible effect is the beneficial insects. Because we are using selective scents, beneficial insects (ladybirds hoverflies, lacewings) are preserved and can take over.

For the farmer, it translated into lower infestation pressure, reduced need for intervention.
And also something less technical but very real is a different relationship to crop protection to the neighborhood. When people come across the field during or just after the spreading, the pleasant smell often starts the discussion between people waking by and the farmer, about the use of biocontrol and innovative technologies to protect fields. 

That season, many farmers discovered that semiochemicals are scents used to guide insect behaviour. Instead of killing insects, they can make the crop less attractive and slow the pest population dynamics. 


5. Biocontrol has a credibility problem built up over years of overpromised, underdelivered products. And unlike insecticides, your fragrances do not kill insects — they influence behaviour. For a sceptical farmer or distributor who has been let down before, how do you make the case that this time is genuinely different?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

They are right to be skeptical. Farmers have been promised a lot over the years, and too many biocontrol solutions have been inconsistent, too dependent on conditions, or simply not practical at field scale. So the credibility issue is real.
Part of the reason is that biocontrol is still a relatively young field in the industrial scale. In many cases, the biological effect exists, you can observe it in nature or demonstrate it in the lab, but the difficulty is turning that into a product that works reliably in real agricultural conditions. The bottleneck is often formulation and delivery: can you release the active compounds at the right dose, in the right place, for a sufficient duration? That is where many solutions fall short.

At Agriodor we take pragmatic position: we are not trying to replace existing tools.
In large-scale agriculture, there is no single silver bullet. Crop protection works through combinations. Insecticides remain essential, but when they are used alone and repeatedly, they create resistance and lose efficiency over time. What we bring is a way to rebalance that system.

Our approach is to act on insect behaviour and do insect life cycle management rather than trying to kill them. In the case of aphids, by modifying the olfactory environment of the crop, we reduce the number of aphids that settle, we slow down their feeding and their reproduction, and we lower the overall pressure. When you combine that with existing treatments, you get better timing, better efficacy, and less selection pressure. 

At each development stage, scents, then Blends, and then formulations, coming out from the lab, are tested in the fields, with farmers. Who knows and evaluates better a solution than the future users? For aphids in sugar beet, the solution has been validated over more than 1000ha, across France, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands … with farmers and technical institutes, in different pedoclimatic environments, over 3 years, showing consistent results. Only concrete field results can show to farmers the performances of the solution, whether it is a biocontrol or not.  

So the message to a skeptical farmer is not “this will replace everything you do.” It’s: this will make what you already do work better and last longer. We are not positioning ourselves as a substitute, but as a performance enhancer within an integrated pest management strategy. 
TRACTION & GO-TO-MARKET
6. Syngenta as your commercial distribution partner for the sugar beet solution is a significant validation. You are also building a co-development model with other crop protection companies. How do you think about the balance between working through majors like Syngenta versus building more direct routes to the farmer — and what does each model unlock that the other cannot?

Co-Founder & CEO, Alain Thibault said:

That’s a very important question, because it goes to the heart of how you bring innovation to farmers. To succeed there are 2 key points: build a strong solution and sale the solution with a quick adoption from the farmers. It is 2 different areas. And Agriodor focuses on the first one. 
For Agriodor, working with a company like Syngenta is a validation. What was particularly striking is how quickly their teams, both technical and commercial, engaged with the technology. Allomones are not part of the traditional toolbox, and yet they really invested time to understand how they work, what their potential is, and how they can be combined with existing solutions. For Agriodor R&D team, that collaboration was extremely valuable, because it allowed us to build field trials and datasets that are directly relevant for real farming conditions.
Large crop protection companies bring something that is very difficult to replicate: they already have established relationships with farmers, trusted distribution channels, and a full portfolio of solutions. That means they can integrate a new technology like ours into an existing program and deploy it at scale, very quickly. They also know how to support farmers in the field, which is critical for adoption.
On our side, Agriodor is a deeptech company. Our core value is to tackle current and emerging pest problems by building new efficient solution very quickly: understanding insect behaviour, discovering active compounds, and turning them into robust products. Building a large commercial organization to reach farmers directly would require a completely different structure, with significant investment and capabilities that are not our priority today.
So partnering with majors allows us to stay focused on what we do best, while ensuring that the technology actually reaches the field.
That being said, thinking about more direct routes to farmers is still interesting, because it unlocks something different. It gives faster feedback, a closer connection to real usage, and potentially more agility in how products are positioned and improved. It can also be relevant in specific markets or for certain crops. In the end, the two models are complementary.
Working with majors unlocks scale, credibility, and integration into existing practices. More direct approaches unlock proximity, speed of learning, and flexibility.
Our strategy today is clearly to leverage strong industrial partners to deploy at scale, while staying very close to field realities through trials and constant interactions with farmers. 



7. When an agronomist, grower or cooperative manager first hears about Agriodor — what does that discovery path look like today? Where are the gaps in how the industry finds companies doing what you do?

Co-Founder & CEO, Alain Thibault said:

 The entry point is often through trusted technical institutions. For example, in sugar beet, our solution was developed and evaluated in collaboration with the French sugar beet technical institute, within a national research program launched in 2021. These institutes play a key role because they generate independent data, validate performance in real conditions, and explain the mode of action in agronomic terms.
So for many farmers, the first exposure is not a company pitch, it is a technical recommendation or a trial result coming from an institution they already trust.
Then, as the solution moves closer to commercialization, companies like Syngenta become the main relay. At that stage, the product is integrated into a broader crop protection program, and it is presented alongside other tools that farmers already use. That makes adoption much easier, because it fits into existing practices rather than requiring a completely new approach.

ADOPTION & THE GROWER'S REALITY
8. You are the first biocontrol solution designed for mechanised application in field crops. Why had no one done that before — and how much of your commercial success to date depends on that single design decision?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

 What is critical in crop protection is not only efficacy — it is usability. If a solution requires new equipment, new habits, or additional investment from the farmer, adoption becomes very difficult, no matter how good the solution is. Farmers operate under strong operational constraints, so every additional layer of complexity creates friction. That’s really the starting point of our design choice. From the beginning, we asked how do we make this solution fit seamlessly into existing practices? For sugar beet, granules applied with standard spreading equipment were the obvious answer. It doesn’t require new machinery, no change in workflow, and it integrates naturally into what farmers already do in the field.
So in that sense, mechanization was a design principle to eliminate friction.

Why had no one done it before?
The formulation and delivery are extremely challenging. Achieving a stable, controlled release in open field conditions, in a format compatible with mechanized agriculture, is a real technological hurdle. 

How important is that decision for our commercial success?
It is central. Farmer evaluates a solution whether it can be used it easily within my existing system? By removing friction we accelerate adoption and we reduce the barrier to first trial. 
And last year, Syngenta proved that our solution can be combined with insecticides and the efficency is great. It is a great point because combination is easier to promote than a new biocontrol solution which replacing a classic insecticide.


9. The development cost for a conventional insecticide runs to EUR 345 million over 12–13 years. Agriodor brings products to market for under EUR 15 million in 5–8 years. For a grower evaluating your solution — what does that cost advantage ultimately mean for the price per hectare they pay?

Co-Founder & CEO, Alain Thibault said:

What matters for a grower is very concrete: what do I pay per hectare, and what do I get in return?
Our development model changes the economics behind the product. Traditional insecticides require very high investment and long timelines, which puts strong pressure on pricing. Because our approach is lighter and faster, we have more flexibility to design solutions that are compatible with large-acre crops and tight farmer margins. The goal is not to add cost, but to improve the overall efficiency of the crop protection program. By reducing pest pressure and improving the performance of existing treatments, we optimize the total spend per hectare rather than just introducing an additional input. But if we stop there, we miss an important part of the equation.

Farmers are not only managing a crop for one season, they are managing a system over decades. And today, part of the cost of crop protection is actually hidden. Resistance builds up, more treatments are needed, efficacy decreases, and there are impacts on soil health, groundwater, biodiversity, and also on farmer exposure. These effects are not always directly quantified economically, but they are real and they accumulate over time.
By acting on behaviour instead of killing, we reduce selection pressure, slow down resistance, and decrease the need for repeated insecticide use. That helps preserve the effectiveness of existing tools, maintain soil and environmental quality, and stabilize the system in the long term.

MARKETS, PIPELINE & INNOVATION
10. The EUR 15 million will fund expansion into Europe, North America and Latin America alongside R&D. These three markets have very different regulatory environments, farming cultures and pest profiles. Where do you expect the fastest commercial traction outside France — and what has to be true for each market to open?

Co-Founder & CEO, Alain Thibault said:

15 million euros is a significant amount, but when you take into account regulatory costs and the need to build a pipeline across multiple geographies, it is actually not that much. So we have to be disciplined in how we deploy it and very selective in the markets we choose.
In Europe, our approach is clearly to be strategic rather than broad. Each country has its own regulatory pathway, so it is not realistic to tackle everything at once. We are building a portfolio focused on countries where biocontrol is already more accepted and where the market size justifies the effort. The objective is to create a few strong footholds rather than dilute resources across too many fragmented markets.
In Latin America, and especially in Brazil, the dynamic is different. It is a large and attractive market, but also cost-driven. Farmers operate at scale with tight margins, and innovation quickly becomes commoditized. So even though row crops represent the largest acreage, they are not necessarily the right entry point for us. Our strategy is to start with higher-value crops, where the same pests are present but where the economics allow for faster adoption of innovation. That gives us the opportunity to build commercial proof, demonstrate value, and establish a solid foundation. Once that is in place, we can progressively expand into large-scale row crops. From a regulatory standpoint, Brazil is also very attractive, with a dynamic framework and timelines that are compatible with innovation.
In North America the opportunity is slightly different. We are working on leveraging products already developed for Europe and adapting them to the US market. The regulatory pathways for semiochemicals are relatively clear and well-structured, which makes it a good opportunity to diversify geographically. But the bar in terms of data and consistency is high, so the focus is on building a strong, data-driven entry.


11. You are moving into fruit flies, whiteflies and thrips — a combined market of over USD 4 billion. How do you prioritise which pest and which crop to go after next — and what does the Agriodor pipeline look like over the next three years?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

What guides our prioritization is not the size of the market alone, but the alignment between biology, agronomy and economics. We start by looking at insects that are globally relevant. That means pests that are present across multiple continents — Europe, the Americas, Africa or Asia — and across different cropping systems. If the same insect affects both vegetables and row crops, for example, it gives us much more leverage in terms of development and scale.
Then we look at the level of agronomic pressure. We focus on pests where there is already a form of technical dead-end: resistance issues, loss of efficacy of existing tools, or increasing regulatory constraints. That’s where growers are actively looking for new solutions, and where we can bring the most value.
A third key criterion is the biological fit with our technology. Our approach relies on olfaction, so we assess whether the insect-plant system is strongly driven by chemical signals. If the insect uses olfaction as a primary way to find and evaluate the crop, then we know we can potentially influence its behaviour and the insect life cycle in a meaningful way.
On top of that, we systematically evaluate feasibility and return: can we deliver a robust solution technically, can we formulate it for field use, and can we reach a price point that works for the farmer? And importantly, is the market large enough to absorb development and regulatory costs, which are relatively fixed regardless of the crop size?
The reality is that, from a purely scientific standpoint, the potential is very broad. The allelochemical technology that we master can address more than 70% of insect pests wordlwide. The limiting factor is not the ability to find a solution — it is choosing where that solution makes sense economically and operationally.
The pipeline is built through a multi-criteria matrix, allowing Agriodor to stay focused and build a pipeline that is both technically strong and commercially relevant over the next few years.


12.
You are now integrating artificial intelligence into your R&D platform through reverse chemical ecology and high-throughput processes. What does AI actually change in the speed and cost of discovering the next active ingredient — and is the 10× cheaper, 2× faster development claim the floor or the ceiling as the platform matures?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

What AI changes for Agriodor is not just one step in the process — it changes the way we explore and design solutions.Traditionally, discovery in chemical ecology is quite empirical. You test molecules one by one, you iterate, and you progressively converge. 
What we are building at Agriodor is an R&D platform that allows us to move toward a much more data-driven and predictive approach. By leveraging AI and high-throughput processes, we can prioritize much faster which molecules or combinations are worth testing, reduce the number of experimental cycles, and converge more efficiently toward active solutions.
So the main impact is a significant acceleration at the discovery stage, and a much better use of resources.
Now, it’s important to be clear: this doesn’t compress everything equally. Field validation, formulation, and regulatory steps still take time. But by accelerating the front end, we fundamentally improve the overall speed and economics of the pipeline.On the “10× cheaper and 2× faster” question, I would actually frame that as a conservative baseline rather than a ceiling. We are living in a very unique moment, where the data and AI landscape is evolving extremely fast. The tools available today are already transforming how we work, and they continue to improve at a remarkable pace. In that context, it’s difficult to put a fixed number on the gains. It could be that, and in some areas, potentially much more.
We are still at the beginning of applying these tools to chemical ecology and to our reverse approach. As we accumulate more data, the models become more predictive, and the gains compound over time.
What is certain is that this opens up a completely new space for discovery.
And on a more personal note, I find it a very exciting time to be working in this field. Having access to these tools allows us to rethink how we design crop protection solutions and to bring forward approaches that are not only more efficient economically, but also safer and more aligned with the needs of farmers and the environment.

FUNDING, TALENT & WHAT THE INDUSTRY NEEDS
13.
You have 42 people across 6 nationalities with 8 PhDs, built from Rennes and Aix-en-Provence, France. What is the talent profile that is genuinely hardest to find in chemical ecology right now — and what happens to the sector if that pipeline of scientists is not built faster than the market is growing?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

Chemical ecology as a discipline is actually quite well established today. There is a strong global community, with very good specialists in behaviour, analytical chemistry, electrophysiology, plant–insect interactions, and many other areas. So the issue is not that the world lacks talent in chemical ecology.
What is much rarer is the ability to connect these disciplines effectively.
Because chemical ecology is inherently multidisciplinary, the real value comes from how well expertise in behaviour, chemistry, formulation, field validation, data, regulation and industrialization work together. No single person can master all of that. What matters is to have experts in each area who are not only strong technically, but also able to collaborate, to understand the constraints of the others, and to contribute to a bigger picture.
That is why, for me, the hardest profile to find is not a “super-scientist” who knows everything. It is a person with strong expertise in their own field, but also the curiosity, openness and maturity to work across functions and not remain in a silo. In our field, soft skills and mindset matter just as much as technical depth, because discovery only creates value when it can be translated into a real solution.
At Agriodor we have built a team and a scalable R&D platform. The value is not only in individual people’s heads. It is in a structured platform that can be used, repeated, scaled and transferred.
People are essential because they make the platform evolve and improve. But the platform itself is a real asset. It is something that can be deployed across geographies and across teams. That is very important, because it means the company is built on an integrated technological base.
CLOSING
14. For an agronomist, sugar beet grower, cooperative buyer or agri-investor reading this story today — what would you want them to walk away thinking about Agriodor, and what is the best next step for them to take right now?

Co-Founder & CTO (Ené Leppik), Agriodor said:

If you are an agronomist or a grower: try it in your own conditions. Put it in your field, integrate it into your program, and see how it changes pest pressure, how it helps you anticipate rather than react, and how it performs over a full season.

If you are a cooperative or a distributor, let’s work together to integrate Agriodor into your crop protection strategies. The opportunity is to build programs that are more efficient, more resilient, and better aligned with the evolution of regulation.
And if you are an investor, come and see the technology in the field and the platform behind it. Let’s explore together how this R&D platform can be leveraged, integrated, and scaled to accelerate the deployment of sustainable crop protection solutions globally.