Bianca Forte, 05 September 2025
Biostimulants are a relatively new class of crop input, holding promise to become the cornerstone of climate-smart farming. For investors, this makes them one of the most urgent investment opportunities of the decade.
What are biostimulants?
Biostimulants enhance biological functions in plants and soil, helping farmers boost yields, improve quality, increase efficiency of nutrient use, and build resilience to heatwaves, droughts, and other climate stresses.
Traditional biostimulants, such as plant and seaweed extracts and acid-based formulations from organic wastes, still dominate 90% of the market. They’ve been around for decades, despite offering unreliable results and limited differentiation.
But major disruption is coming to this industry in the form of microbial and single-molecule formulations. These newer technologies are where the breakthroughs are happening, and where new market leaders will be made.
Market growth and trends
From U$4.1B today, to a predicted value of U$11.2B by 2035, biostimulants are scaling at double-digit CAGR (compound annual growth rate). They are not a passing trend. They will become the fourth pillar of food production, powered by unstoppable drivers, including:
- Weather: Rising temperatures and erratic rainfall threaten crop yields and quality, from wheat production in the UK to glasshouse production of tomatoes in Japan. Biostimulants enable climate-smart farming.
- Consumer demand: Consumers in developed countries want sustainable food, whether it is sourced locally or from abroad. Biostimulants help to reduce the carbon footprint of food production and reduce the ongoing pressure to expand farmland.
- Regulatory pressure: Europe and countries which export into it are tightening their rules on the use of synthetic fertilisers and crop protection products. Biostimulants will help fill the gap in revenue for input companies.
Turning risk into advantage
The biostimulants industry has long suffered from a lack of regulations. This led to a myriad of undifferentiated products being promoted to farmers, eroding their trust and driving a race to the bottom on price. This chaos is ending.
Leading the charge is the European Union (EU), with its Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR) 2019/1009, which took effect in July 2022. This new framework provides universal standards for companies wanting to place biostimulants on the EU’s Single Market. Products that meet its stringent safety, quality, and efficacy requirements are granted the CE mark.
In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is looking to regulate the market under a new framework for fertilisers. It has confirmed that the industry welcomes new regulation, and it has now commissioned a practical study to assess if the FPR 2019/1009 standards provide a strong base for certification.
The Plant Biostimulant Act recently reintroduced in the US creates a federal definition for biostimulants and streamlines the approval process for products. Currently, nine states have adopted a definition for ‘beneficial substances’ developed by the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO), and 20 others may initiate legislation/ rulemaking before the end of 2025.
Weaknesses being exposed
These are a few examples which show that weak biostimulants will be swept away in key food producing countries. The companies with validated science behind their products will be rewarded. As rules tighten, SugaROx is perfectly positioned to lead with our patented platform technology to develop single-molecule biostimulants:
- Our technology is grounded in over 25 years of cutting-edge science by our academic founders, with their results published in high-impact papers such as Nature, PNAS, Plant Physiology and Nature Biotechnology.
- We have 18 patents to our name, granted worldwide, so we have a solid foundation to our approach. Our patent portfolio covers the use of our first product in major agricultural countries including the UK, US, Brazil, China, and key EU member states.
How we’re different
Across the UK, EU, and US, the story is the same: biostimulants are becoming the fourth pillar of crop production. But the market is clogged with products which underdeliver, leaving distributors unable to meet the demands of farmers.
That’s where SugaROx stands apart:
- Breakthrough technology: As a spin out of Rothamsted Research and Oxford University, our platform delivers natural plant bioactivators into plant cells via a simple foliar spray. Our patented “delivery cage” ensures absorption of the molecules and activation in their site of action.
- Targeted mode-of-action: Our first product is a modified trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a natural sugar that deactivates a famine-signaling enzyme (SnRK1), shifting plants from “survival mode” to “thriving mode.” Traditional biostimulants deliver 2–5% yield gains – our field trials to-date show potential to deliver 5–22% yield boost in wheat crops.
This isn’t incremental. It’s transformative, and the leap forward that farmers, distributors, and corporates are actively searching for.
Why invest now?
Despite a recent dip in venture funding, biologicals remain an area of ongoing investment via venture capital, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate-led or collaborative research and development.
While historically biological ventures required decades to achieve U$4M–U$30M revenue, experts are forecasting that U$100M+ revenues are now achievable within 10 years of a venture being founded.
Biostimulants are standing out due to their double-digit growth on demand, the lack of reliable products servicing demand, and regulations cleaning up the market.
However, there is an urgency; only a handful of companies worldwide are pioneering single-molecule biostimulants. Like our peers, SugaROx offers a robust approach, aligned with regulatory shifts and a go-to-market strategy to sell our products via channels trusted by farmers. We are on a mission to transform this industry.
Where we stand out, above our peers, is through our platform technology to generate a pipeline of molecules across crops, using over 25 years of science underpinning our first molecule, and exclusive access to 18 foundational patents.
No other venture offers the same potential for innovation and growth. This positions us as both a preferred technology partner for corporates and a prime target for M&A.
Join us in the biostimulants revolution
The winners are being chosen now. If you’re looking to back technologies that deliver both impact and returns, this is your moment.
We’ll be at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London on 22nd–23rd September 2025. Come chat with our team at the event, contact us today to secure a 121 with us.