By Janet Kanters

Belgian agtech startup B-COS has raised €1 million (US$1.16 million) in pre-seed funding to advance development of biological crop protection products produced through precision fermentation.

The funding round was backed by Agri Investment Fund (AIF), the venture capital arm of Belgian farmers’ organization Boerenbond, and VP Capital, the investment vehicle of the Van Puijenbroek family in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company also received early support and incubation from Biotope by VIB, along with a research grant from the Flemish Agency for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) to further study how its crop protection products work in plants.

Founded as a spin-off from Ghent University, B-COS is developing crop protection products based on precision-fermented chitooligosaccharides. The company says the technology is designed to address one of the main challenges facing biological crop protection products: inconsistent performance.

Many biological products are made from naturally extracted materials, which can vary between production batches. B-COS instead uses engineered bacteria fed with sugar-based ingredients to produce consistent molecular structures in every production run.

The company said the controlled production process is intended to improve reliability while keeping costs manageable for growers.

B-COS has entered into an early discovery agreement with Nichino Europe, the European subsidiary of Japanese crop protection company Nihon Nohyaku. The collaboration will assess the potential of the company’s precision-fermented chitooligosaccharides across multiple crop protection uses.

“With this early discovery collaboration, we want to analyze the solutions developed by B-COS. By doing this together with B-COS we aim to do this on an efficient way in order to shorten the time to market once the potential has been identified,” said Stef Dierickx, business development manager at Nichino Europe Co., Ltd.

Tomato is the company’s first target crop, with products being developed to help protect against fungal diseases and nematodes while also improving drought resilience. The company said the platform could later be adapted for other crops and agronomic challenges.

B-COS plans to use the new funding to scale up production, advance through the European regulatory process, and move products into greenhouse and field trials.

“What Europe needs is not just more biological alternatives, but better ones: products that deliver consistent, predictable results under real field conditions. This financing puts us in an excellent position to further unlock the potential of the technology platform,” said Chiara Guidi, CEO and co-founder of B-COS.

B-COS was launched in June 2025 through Ghent University’s Fast Lane spin-off program.