Bio-capsules startup raises €4.2m to improve human and animal nutrition

The Bordeaux-based sustainable microencapsulation startup has brought in the new capital as part of its second funding round. With support from the French state as well as other private investors, Kapsera hopes to ramp up production to help other companies distribute sustainable agriculture and nutrition products.

The startup's focus is on creating safe ways to store the living bacteria used in these items.

It's CEO, Antoine Drevelle, has been in the industrial biotech sector for well over a decade, including as research director in the biotech division of French agricultural heavyweight Soufflet.

Though he started his career working in pharmaceuticals, Drevelle said he always knew he wanted to move into nutrition. "My PhD was on protein engineering for pharmaceuticals, which is great, but it was not my world,” Drevelle told Impact Loop. "I was more interested in food-producing crops. It's good to produce drugs to cure people, but the first step is to feed everyone. And if you make it in a very sustainable manner, you also contribute to the health of people."

It's good to produce drugs to cure people, but the first step is to feed everyone

Struggling to commercialise

While working in sustainable agriculture, particularly looking at biosolutions to replace high-emissions or high-toxicity fertilisers, he came across many startup founders or academics who had developed microbes that had real potential, but who were struggling to commercialise them. "[They were] saying 'it works great in the lab, quite good in the greenhouse, but we are facing challenges in the field'", said Drevelle.

The trouble is that, unlike chemicals which can be stored relatively easily, a lot of sustainable biosolutions involve probiotics, living bacteria, which are very sensitive to external factors.

Drevelle and his Kapsera co-founder Jérôme Bibette hit upon the idea of using sustainable capsules made of alginate derived from brown algae. They’ve since expanded to provide capsule solutions for the sustainable agriculture, food and animal feed sectors.

Critial to find the right partner

With this latest injection of funding, Kapsera are looking to push further out of the R&D phase and partner with more companies who want to distribute their own biosolutions using Kapsera’s capsules. The company aims to produce 60 tonnes of their various types of capsules by the end of 2025. They are already well-established in the French agriculture scene, says Drevelle, and are looking for more partners in animal and human nutrition.

"For us, we always need a partner to access the market. We supply the capsules, but the partners bring the active ingredient and control the market. So it's always about finding the right partners. It's critical for us."

This latest funding round saw Kapsera receive investment from the French state as part its France 2030 programme to foster innovation in the country. This type of support is particularly helpful, argues Drevelle, as the last few years have seen VCs tightening their wallets due to a shaky global economy.

At the same time, unlike other investors who may be looking for an exit within a short time-frame, the France 2030 programme has patience. “It's really great, because they don't care about time. They just want to make sure that at the end we develop a plant, or several plants, in France, that we create jobs and generate economic activity. It's strong support and long term support.”