CelluDot has received a $181,484 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Fayetteville company is producing a novel solution to herbicide drift, enabling farmers to more effectively and safely control weeds.
ASBTDC Assistance
CelluDot engaged the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center for SBIR application development services, including the Lab2Launch Accelerator program.
“ASBTDC has been a huge resource for CelluDot in the last two years,” said CelluDot CEO and PhD candidate Joseph Batta-Mpouma. “ASBTDC assisted us with market research, which helped us identify some key industry trends in the agrochemical space.”
Batta-Mpouma said the CelluDot team’s participation in the 2020 Lab2Launch Accelerator cohort “was extremely valuable in learning the details of the SBIR application process and simply keeping us on track. ASBTDC has provided the kind of support we needed for proposal planning and review.”
“Many thanks to both Rebecca Todd and Catherine Corley for their invaluable support and insight. We strongly recommend any startup that’s planning to submit an SBIR/STTR grant proposal to make use of ASBTDC services.”
Todd is ASBTDC’s innovation specialist, and Corley is a business consultant at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ASBTDC.
Solving a Growing Problem for Farmers
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 70 million pounds of agrochemicals—including volatile herbicides—pollute unintended areas due to drift every year. Drift, the movement of these chemicals to untargeted areas, is a growing risk in the global agricultural industry that can burden farmers with legal ramifications if left untreated.
“CelluDot addresses the growing problem of agrochemical drift with a novel biopolymer technology that keeps herbicides at the site of their intended use, thus enabling farmers to effectively control weeds on their farms without worrying about the financial and legal implications of herbicides drifting to neighboring fields growing sensitive non-resistant crops,” said Batta-Mpouma.
Although the EPA has mandated the use of volatility-reducing agents with drift-prone chemicals and several agencies have restricted some of the most volatile herbicides, CelluDot targets the problem in a more effective, affordable, and environmentally friendly way.
“The biodegradable nature of our product and the associated reduction in herbicide drift will minimize the negative impacts of excessive herbicide usage and toxic petrochemical-based adjuvants on society and the environment, including air, water, soil, and bee populations,” said CelluDot CTO Gurshagan Kandhola, PhD.
CelluDot’s technology is versatile, with multiple applications and opportunities for commercialization.
“Our nanocellulose-based product, a patent-pending technology, is an eco-friendly and cost-affordable emulsifiable adjuvant that can be commercialized as a standalone product or an all-in-one formulation due to its multiple functionalities, including those of a surfactant, water conditioner, drift-reducing agent, and volatility-reducing agent,” said Kandhola.
Last year, CelluDot won a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Science Foundation.
“Through the national and local NSF I-Corps programs, CelluDot has conducted 300+ interviews with key stakeholders, including farmers, crop consultants, weed scientists, extension agents, and industry decision makers, and influencers,” Batta-Mpouma said. “Nine out of 10 interviewees stated that the current drift control additives are ineffective in reducing drift of volatile herbicides such as Dicamba, and that vapor drift is the red-hot pain point that urgently needs a solution.”
CelluDot’s research has identified other herbicides that pose agricultural and environmental risks.
“These findings validated the market need for CelluDot’s core technology, which reduces both vapor and spray drift,” said Batta-Mpouma.
With the USDA SBIR Phase I award, the CelluDot team has several objectives.
“We aim to (1) validate our nanocellulose-based adjuvant as a differentiated and effective product with combined DRA and VRA capabilities when used in conjunction with common herbicides; (2) quantify drift reduction of commercial dicamba on pilot scale through small-plot field testing; (3) test herbicidal activity with a variety of weed species; and (4) improve crop coverage with an overall cost-per-acre comparable to that of existing adjuvants,” said Kandhola.
The CelluDot Team
Batta-Mpouma and Kandhola are co-inventors of the technology. Prior to co-founding CelluDot in 2020, Batta-Mpouma and Kandhola spent five years conducting research on waste from natural resources and its processing into useful materials like nanocellulose. In addition to their scientific and engineering backgrounds, Batta-Mpouma is a certified business manager, while Kandhola is a startup technology consultant.
CelluDot is seeking a business developer to supplement the team’s commercialization effort. The team has the regulatory, marketing, and business support of an experienced board of advisors.
Advice for SBIR Applicants
While crafting a proposal, Batta-Mpouma suggests “having clear goals and objectives that will help get your startup and/or product to the next level and a realistic allocation of time and financial resources to achieve these objectives.”
Kandhola advises new SBIR applicants to “start early and maximally use resources available at the ASBTDC, as well as others from the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Arkansas, Startup Junkie, and Winrock International’s Science Venture Studio.
“These organizations work very closely with startup companies seeking SBIR funding and guide you through the entire process, making sure you do not fail because of a lack of familiarity and experience with this seemingly intimidating process.”