The founders of Fa Bio (formerly FungiAlert) were undertaking their doctorates at Imperial College London when they had the idea for SporSenZ. SponSenZ is the first in-the-field early detection sensor for plant diseases in soil and water. Unlike other soil health analysis, the company’s handheld patented technology only detects living and actively growing microorganisms in a field.
This information allows farmers to understand the disease pressures within their soil. It collects microorganisms – pathogens and beneficials – associated with a crop in different field areas. The beneficials include natural predators to the crop pathogens and microbes that can increase yields. Fa BioAg identifies microbial biocontrol, biostimulant and biofertilisier elements, reducing the discovery phase of the development process for biological products.
Dr Angela de Manzanos is CEO and Co-Founder of Fa Bio. Angela joined the Scale Up Accelerator programme in 2021 and thinks “it will help me to become a more efficient negotiator to secure the best contracts for the company. I hope it’ll focus our strategy definition and execution plan and I’m sure it will prove useful in helping define a suitable growth scheme that will facilitate the scale up of our team and operations.”
Following a seed investment round that raised over £1 million, Fa Bio is validating a new business model and carrying out more microbial studies. The company aims to minimise agriculture’s environmental impact while sustainably increasing crop productivity through sustainable farming solutions that can restore the biodiversity of degraded soils.
Associated Programme
