Technical University of Denmark: From DTU spinout to company with billion-kroner price tag

Irina Borodina sends an almost loving look to the boxy machine in front of her. They have a history together. The GC-MS machine for analyzing pheromones in fermentation fluid looks like a high-tech microwave oven, and it was the very first piece of equipment her spinout bought four years ago—so they’ve been on quite a journey together.

“It’s been running almost around the clock,” she says.

So did Irina Borodina when she first embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure and founded the company BioPhero. She admits that it has been hard at times, but also fantastically educational and rewarding.

“If I had known what it would be like to be an entrepreneur, I would never have dared to do it,” she says.

Since the start of operations in 2018, BioPhero has grown from three to 30 employees, and the nondescript commercial building in Østerbro, where the company is based, hides a laboratory with bioreactors, robots, and equipment worth millions. In addition, BioPhero has opened a production facility in Fredericia. And it should be added that BioPhero also has new owners who bought the company for a staggering DKK 1.4 billion.

Pest control with pheromones
Irina Borodina never thought that she would start up a business based on insects’ ‘mate attractor’. Female insects emit pheromones—which are a kind of fragrances—to attract male insects when they are ready for mating. By secreting the same pheromones in fields or gardens, you can confuse the males so much that they cannot find a mate, and you can thus combat pests biologically.

Conventional pesticides are often harmful to the environment, they are toxic to other animals and humans, and they result in water contamination, but pheromones are volatile and non-toxic, and therefore not harmful to the environment. At the same time, pheromones are insect-specific, which means that they only reduce the spread of a particular species of pests, without disturbing other insects, such as bees. The technology is not new, but, so far, the pheromones have been produced chemically—which is very expensive—and they are therefore mainly used for organic fruit. By using yeast cells to produce pheromones, BioPhero has pushed the price down and made it possible to widen the use of biological pest control to crops with large areas such as maize, rice, and soy.

Expensive biotech research
The idea of producing sexual attraction fragrances from yeast was new to Irina Borodina. Through her work as professor of biotechnology at DTU Biosustain, she became aware of insect pheromones as a pesticide in 2013. Until then, her research had focused on getting yeast cells to secrete other useful substances, but a colleague from Greece asked her about the possibility of making pheromones from yeast. It sounded exciting, so she threw herself into the project.

The road to success was paved with new collaborations with entomology researchers and an endless number of grant applications for research projects. Irina Borodina’s determined work led to three patents for DTU in the development of pheromones in yeast cells.

In 2017, the project reached a phase known in biotech parlance as ‘the death valley’—where the technology has been sufficiently developed so that it is no longer suitable for fundamental research grants, while still being quite far from commercial production. After several attempts, Irina Borodina fortunately received a small grant from Vækstforum Sjælland (Growth Forum Zealand), and she used the money to get a company in Portugal to ferment their yeast strain in a large bioreactor to prove that their solution could be scaled upwards. It could—thus paving the way for an EU grant of EUR 2 million—which was, however, conditional on her being able to raise EUR 800,000 in own funding. This meant that she had to go hunting for money again.

“I’ve spent just as much time raising money for research as I’ve spent on conducting the actual research,” laughs Irina Borodina.

Irina Borodina succeeded in raising the amount through Syddansk Innovation, and BioPhero became a reality in 2018. And she quickly had to realize that life as an entrepreneur was something completely different from life as an employee.

Crazy upheaval
Irina Borodina has a picture of herself standing with her first three employees as well as DTU President Anders Bjarklev and DTU’s Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Senior Vice President Marianne Thellersen. They have just signed the licence agreement that gave BioPhero exclusive rights to the patents that Irina Borodina’s team had developed at DTU. This was the start of an adventure in which the company had to be built up from scratch.

“It was a crazy upheaval,” says Irina Borodina.

She became CEO and had a good grasp of the strategic aspects of leading the company, but drowned in all the practical stuff. She had to learn about accounting, administration, liability insurance, employment contracts, and loads more.

“The biggest challenge was that I needed very broad knowledge and there was not one overall place where I could get it. I would have liked us to have had a checkbox where we could tick off all the things we had to deal with. It is such a complex system that if you make a mistake and something happens, you have to close down the business,” says Irina Borodina.

She worked seven days a week while also retaining her position as a professor at DTU Biosustain because she did not want to give up her research career. She also had a number of grants that she would otherwise lose, and she was very happy with her research team.

“I don’t know where I found the time, but I didn’t prioritize my social life, that’s for sure,” she says.

The rescue came when BioPhero hired a CEO who could take all the practicalities and business development off her shoulders.

“It was a great relief,” says Irina Borodina—who initially became Chief Technical Officer and later Chief Scientific Officer—so that she now focuses exclusively on the research aspects, while CEO Kristian Ebbensgaard and CTO Jesper Dohrup handle operations and production.

Ambivalent feelings about selling
According to the analysis firm IBISWorld, around DKK 120 billion is spent on insecticides globally every year, and BioPhero hopes to be able to take a solid chunk out of this market when their solution is scaled up. The American agricultural chemistry company FMC saw this potential, and they acquired BioPhero for DKK 1.4 billion in June.

When the purchase was concluded, however, Irina Borodina was not exactly ecstatic. Her brain told her that it was the right decision, because BioPhero will have completely different opportunities through having access to the entire FMC distribution network, and all those who have helped build up BioPhero would be rewarded for their hard work. But her heart said something else—in a way, it felt a bit like the end of the entrepreneurial adventure.

“I was a little sad when the acquisition went through, because there’s something special about being your own independent business,” she says.

Most people would probably see it as the pinnacle of success to sell their business for more than one billion kroner, but Irina Borodina does not see it that way.

“I already knew we were a success when we made our first production, because we experienced huge interest in our products,” she says.

However, Irina Borodina is pleased that one of the world’s largest manufacturers of pesticides decided to enter into pheromone production, as it shows that agriculture is on the path towards sustainability.

She advises entrepreneurs to choose the important goals for their business.

“A business isn’t primarily about making money. It’s about creating something new and exciting that can make the world a better place. This may be new products, new technology, or an inspiring workplace with a good balance between work and family life,” says Irina Borodina.

The best of two worlds
For most people, being an entrepreneur is a full-time job—and then some. But Irina Borodina has always held on to her position as professor at DTU and still divides her time between BioPhero and DTU.

“I would get bored if I only had one project,” says Irina Borodina and elaborates:

“Very few people have their own research group like I do at DTU, and that’s really a privilege. I have the opportunity to conduct research into many different things and start all kinds of side projects, so there is greater freedom as a university professor.”

Right now, she has the best of both worlds and also enjoys what the entrepreneurial world has to offer.

“A start-up has a very dynamic and result-oriented working environment. The team becomes like one big family because you feel part of a joint mission and those who have been involved from the beginning have had the opportunity to undergo a huge development because there are so many tasks and you have to learn quickly,” she says.

BioPhero is close to having their first product on the market while developing and testing pheromone agents for several crops and insects. So the work with BioPhero is far from finished for Irina Borodina. But she also dreams of starting up a new business again at some point. Maybe with another spinout from DTU. And this time she has already earned her spurs.