It has been another great year for scaling Elemental Enzymes. The company doubled revenue last year and is set to do so again with a number of major developments, including a sizable investment from Paine Schwartz Partners.

Highlights:

• Paine Schwartz Partners investment
• U.S. EPA approval of Vismax®
• Board of Directors growth and reorganization
• New CFO
• Surpassing 100 active employees
• Two additional overseas product registrations

Invested in growth

The middle of 2023 brought fantastic news in the form of Paine Schwartz Partners, a global leader in sustainable food-chain investing, announcing that it would make a substantial investment in the continued growth of Elemental Enzymes.

This investment is about more than funding. Paine Schwartz also brings significant expertise and resources relevant to the agricultural industry, which are already helping us in adding to our technical, R&D, and manufacturing capabilities. The company is branching into new markets, expanding our reach in existing locales, and preparing to launch new products. Within four years, Elemental expects to increase its number of on-market products and countries from 17 to 115 worldwide.

“Paine Schwartz’s investment into the next phase of our effort to build the world’s leading supplier of sustainable ag inputs is already hard at work,” says Dr. Brian Thompson, Elemental CEO and co-founder. “We are expanding research and marketing here and in other countries, and we’re excited about the results we are seeing after just six months.”

New products with new approvals

The company marked another milestone in September, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved our patented proprietary biofungicide, Vismax®, for registration within the United States. Elemental developed Vismax® technology six years ago as a naturally occurring peptide-based formulation used to control a range of pathogens that cause yield losses in a host of horticultural and field crops alike. Vismax® also has no off-target effects on the environment or mammals.

Vismax® is being marketed through exclusive licensing with industry partners Nutrien Ltd. and Corteva Agriscience to treat the country’s most pressing fungal and bacterial crop diseases — notably Citrus Greening, wheat head scab, and Cercospora. Developed from natural peptides, the Vismax® technology platform works to activate the immune system in crops to help them defend themselves against such pathogens.

Says Thompson, “Vismax is the first of our patented product technologies to be EPA-registered, and we are pleased to provide this novel technology to our partners, and to have the opportunity to show growers real results against yield-robbing fungal and bacterial diseases.”

Elemental has also submitted applications for regulatory approval of Vismax® in other countries, where more chemical pesticides are being banned because of their off-target effects on the environment and human health. These additional approvals would further support global expansion in coming years.

Talent growth

Elemental Enzymes restructured the Board of Directors this fall. Three legacy members still serve on the board, including CEO Thompson, Elemental Chief Science Officer and co-founder Dr. Ashley Siegel, and Jim Zimmer — Managing Partner and co-founder of Moraine Farmland Partners, a Chicago-based fund dedicated to purchasing and actively managing farmland properties in the Midwest.

They are joined by new members from Paine Schwartz Partners, including CEO and founding partner Kevin Schwartz and Managing Director-Technology Stephen Padgette.

Leading the Board as of October 1, 2023, is newly-added Chair Brett Begemann. He is responsible for ensuring its effectiveness in setting and implementing corporate direction for Elemental, and leads its focus on strategic direction. In addition, he is responsible for setting high governance standards and being available to the CEO to advise on company strategy and operations.

Begemann retired from Bayer Crop Science in 2021, after three years as its Chief Operating Officer; prior to that, he was with Monsanto for 35 years in sales and marketing, moving up through executive management to become President and COO before its acquisition by Bayer in 2018. He has held leadership roles in other regional and global agribusiness organizations, as well.

In August, Elemental Enzymes hit another important milestone: After 12 years, the company surpassed 100 active employees! The manufacturing team in particular saw significant growth — from 12 employees at the beginning of the year to now 28. Along with this team growth, Elemental roughly doubled the square footage of its manufacturing facilities over the year.

One of our newest hires is Mark Deadwyler, Elemental’s Chief Financial Officer. He joined our team in October, with 30 years of global finance experience in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and technology. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President and CFO at Reconext and, prior to that, served in several global finance leadership roles at Teva Pharmaceuticals and Monsanto.

Mark will be responsible, as CFO, for enabling performance of our company’s growing operations as it expands into new markets and nations, as well as helping shape the strategy and direction of Elemental. He brings leadership experience in developing life-science businesses worldwide to the role, and has been instrumental in his other roles for integrating strategy, planning, analysis, valuation, negotiation, investor relations, accounting, and governmental compliance.

Growing our brand

Outside the U.S., our industry partners are also expanding Elemental’s technological reach via new products. Earlier this year, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency approved registration of Zypro™, a soil amendment sold by Helena Agri-Enterprises.

Zypro™ features an enzymatic mode of action powered by our patented VersaShield® development process. It complements fertilizer additives and supports native microbial activity in the harsh soil environment, working upon application to provide maximum nutrition to hungry plant roots by opening up the soil’s availability of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

In Brazil, the government approved a patent this year for Sosdia® Stress, an abiotic plant stress mitigator sold by Corteva. This product employs biochemistries developed by Elemental designed to naturally help crops such as corn and soybeans retain more water, improve stomata function, and benefit from better-protected plant cells. Sosdia® was also approved for registered use in five countries this year: Canada, Belgium, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Paraguay. Additionally, it became available for sale in four countries where registration is not required: Chile, Peru, Australia, and New Zealand.

Heading into 2024, Elemental Enzymes will continue to reach higher, building sustainable crop solutions from the foundation Mother Nature has provided.