Brazil: Symbiomics and Valeouro Forge Strategic Partnership to Advance Genome Editing in the Biologicals Sector
Against the backdrop of growing demand for innovation in agricultural biologicals, biotechnology companies Symbiomics and Valeouro Biotec have announced a strategic partnership to develop a new generation of solutions for disease management in Brazil’s main agricultural systems.
Under the alliance, Symbiomics and Valeouro Biotec will work together: Symbiomics will contribute its proprietary microorganism discovery and genome-editing platform, while Valeouro will bring its extensive knowledge of Brazilian agriculture, connecting strategic market-access, technical and industrial capabilities. The companies expect the new generation of solutions to reach the market within the next two to three years.
The partnership comes at a time of expansion in Brazil’s biologicals market. According to CropLife Brasil, an association representing companies specializing in the research and development of solutions for sustainable agricultural production, the sector generated R$6.2 billion in 2025, a 15% increase from the previous year. Over the same period, the area treated with biological products grew 28%, reaching 194 million hectares.
Soybeans, corn and sugarcane together account for more than 90% of the use of these technologies in the country. Biocontrol segments (bioinsecticides, bionematicides and biofungicides) accounted for most of the sector’s revenue, totaling approximately R$5.4 billion in 2025.
As biological products become more established in agriculture, demand is also growing for new technologies capable of improving their performance, consistency and differentiation. Brazil already has more than 700 registered products, underscoring the expansion and importance of this market. The sector’s next leap, however, will depend not only on launching new products, but also on incorporating tools that enable the development of solutions with superior characteristics and clearer benefits for growers.
In this context, genome editing emerges as a promising alternative. By enabling the precise enhancement of traits in microorganisms of agricultural interest, this technology has the potential to increase their robustness, efficiency, and stability, as well as ensure more consistent performance under different soil and climatic conditions. It also has the potential to accelerate the development of products that differentiate themselves from those already available on the market, going beyond the incremental gains that characterize conventional approaches.
“To develop a product that truly differentiates itself from what is already available on the market, it is necessary to expand the diversity of microorganisms explored and use technologies capable of enhancing their characteristics,” says Rafael de Souza, CEO and co-founder of Symbiomics. “Symbiomics has a proprietary collection of thousands of isolated microorganisms and combines microbiome and genome-editing technologies to develop high-performance biological products based on more robust microorganisms for biocontrol. Our goal is to turn this capability into a product with clear differentiators and consistent field performance that contributes to growers’ productivity and profitability. I see Valeouro as the ideal structure and the right partner to scale this technology and bring it to growers,” he adds.
Founded in 2021, Valeouro has built a diversified and robust portfolio in just a few years, with more than 20 products currently marketed in Brazil. With innovation at the core of its strategy, the company has been expanding its investments in research and development, with support from Finep, to increase the technological sophistication of its portfolio and accelerate the launch of new products into the market.
“Our biomanufacturing facility, scheduled to begin operations in the coming years, was designed to provide the industrial capacity required to scale up and manufacture new technologies. The facility will enable us to take disruptive products from the development stage to industrial scale, as exemplified by what is emerging from our alliance with Symbiomics, strengthening the synergy between the two companies,” says Luciano Galera, CEO of Valeouro Biotec.
In addition to the technology’s differentiating capabilities, the partnership was structured to reduce the time between the discovery of a microorganism and its transformation into a product. “In biologicals, gaining speed does not mean eliminating steps, but making better decisions earlier. To achieve this, over the past five years Symbiomics has implemented a proprietary platform that integrates the latest advances in microbiome studies, genomic sequencing, machine learning and genome editing. This structure allows us to select and improve microorganisms with greater precision, increasing the chances of developing high-performance products in shorter cycles than conventional development processes. In this regard, Valeouro’s participation brings an industrial perspective from the outset and shortens the path from technology to market,” explains Jader Armanhi, COO and co-founder of Symbiomics.
The expectation is that the technology will be integrated into disease management programs, with the potential to sustainably increase productivity while reducing operating costs per hectare. “More than developing a new product, we want to transform scientific innovation into a solution that delivers performance, consistency, and value to growers. This is our vision for the future: to contribute to building a new generation of biological products that are more efficient, competitive, and capable of generating a real impact in the field,” says Flávia Camargo, Executive Manager of Research, Development, and Innovation at Valeouro Biotec.
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