Verdesian was formed in 2012 through the acquisition of six companies by Paine Schwartz Partners, a private equity firm specializing in sustainable food chain investing and agribusiness based in San Mateo, California and New York City.
“We need to do more with less -- less water, less land, better soil quality, and fewer insecticides,” said Verdesian CEO Kenneth Avery during an interview with NCBiotech. “We have to get more out of land.”
To that end, Verdesian focuses on plant nutrient use efficiency. “Lots of nutrients applied are never taken up by plants,” Avery said. From a business standpoint, “that’s a great and expanding space -- and to a large extent a white space. If you want to sell corn seed, you have to unsell someone else. Our business is not like that.”
Verdesian recently leased greenhouses from Duke University to expand its research and development program. It uses the greenhouses to do early phase research on concepts. “It is a lot easier and more cost effective to come up with new products and test them on a small scale. Once we feel good about a couple of rounds of testing in the greenhouses, we take it out to the field.” The research is centered on soil and water quality aimed at developing the company’s early phase pipeline.