Agriodor, a Rennes-based AgriTech startup using natural scents to protect crops, has raised €15 million in Series A funding to accelerate its growth and the global deployment of its olfactory biocontrol technology.
The round was led by the Environmental and Solidarity Revolution Fund, which is financed by the societal dividend of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and managed by Crédit Mutuel Impact. Regional funds Région Sud Investissement and CAAP Création (Crédit Agricole Alpes-Provence), along with historical investors Capagro, CapHorn, and SWEN Capital Partners, also participated in the round.
Alain Thibault, co-founder and President of Agriodor, said, “We are convinced that the future of crop protection lies in biology, not chemistry. With this funding round, we mark Agriodor’s transformation — from a leading French AgTech startup into a global specialist in scent-based biocontrol. Our technology provides farmers with an effective tool to protect yields while preserving the environment and human health.”
Agriodor was founded in 2019 by Alain Thibault and Dr Ené Leppik. It is a spin-off of INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment. The company develops a new class of crop protection solutions based on scents naturally emitted by plants to influence insect behaviour.
Agriodor states that this method provides a high-performance, sustainable, and scalable alternative to traditional pesticides, especially as the agricultural sector encounters increasing pest resistance, regulatory challenges, and biodiversity decline.
According to the company, dozens of insect pest species (notably among aphids, whiteflies, and thrips) have developed resistance to insecticides and represent major threats to global agriculture. Climate change is further accelerating their spread, making sustainable alternatives increasingly essential.
At the same time, the worldwide collapse of insect populations over the past 20 years has major consequences for biodiversity. “In some regions, insect biomass has declined by around 70–75% over recent decades (Hallmann et al., PLOS ONE, 2017), and up to 40% of insect species may be at risk of extinction (Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys, Biological Conservation, 2019). This biodiversity loss has direct implications for agriculture, particularly for soil health and pollination — with insects supporting over 75% of global food crop types (IPBES, 2016) — as well as broader impacts on ecosystems at a global scale,” mentioned the company in the press release.
Agriodor claims that its R&D platform relies on high-throughput chemical ecology approaches and continues to accelerate through reverse chemical ecology. By reproducing natural plant scents and combining them with formulations adapted to different cropping systems around the world, the company provides tools that attract, repel, or disrupt pest insects to control their populations.
This method enables bringing products to market at development costs up to ten times lower and in half the time compared to traditional insecticides, while also tackling important issues like resistance management and selectivity.
Dr Ené Leppik, co-founder and CTO, said, “Olfaction is a universal language for insects, and we cracked it. Our technology represents a revolution in crop protection — high-performing, residue-free and biodiversity-friendly — that can be used alone or in combination with any other crop protection tool.”
The company notes that its first product, targeting sugar beet aphids, is commercialised through an exclusive distribution agreement with Syngenta, supporting French sugar beet growers in the fight against yellows virus. Agriodor is currently broadening its portfolio to include new crops and insect families like fruit flies, whiteflies, and thrips, which together constitute a market exceeding €3.3 billion ($4 billion).
Agriodor is adopting a co-development approach for some of these projects, partnering with established crop protection companies to speed up adoption and regulatory approval while supporting sustainability goals.
Agriodor recently achieved a world first by deploying a semiochemical (allomone) in row crops – a breakthrough application in sugar beet fields in France. The fresh investment will now enable the company to apply this new technology to additional crops and insect families, accelerate its commercial expansion in Europe, Latin America and North America, and further strengthen its R&D capabilities through artificial intelligence.
The company holds 8 patents across 3 patent families and has a multidisciplinary team of 42 specialists from 6 nationalities, including 8 PhDs. It also relies on strategic advisors, including senior experts from leading crop protection companies. It has also established 15 R&D partnerships across Europe, China and Brazil to further expand its impact.
The startup operates in Europe, with development plans overseas, particularly in Latin America. Agriodor has two laboratories in France: its headquarters in Rennes, dedicated to strategic R&D and the company’s technological core, and a second site in Aix-en-Provence, focused on pests specific to the Mediterranean basin.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/04/scents-against-insects-agriodor-raises-e15-million-to-protect-crops-with-olfactory-biocontrol/
