Cearitis: a high-potential agritech start-up is flourishing in Provence

€800 000 in additional funding for the innovative green agritech company

Entrepreneurship in agriculture can be difficult, but Cearitis has risen to the challenge with stunning success. The company and its team of 15 people are currently developing groundbreaking “push & pull” biocontrol solutions to offer a green alternative to pesticides for protecting fruit trees from insects and pests. On September 28, Cearitis inaugurated its model orchard just a few meters from its new offices on the Arbois plateau near Aix-en-Provence. The orchard is both a miniature demonstrator and an embodiment of this emerging company’s commitment to sustainable development and preserving biodiversity. In a ceremony held not far from the European-leading Arbois cleantech hub, the two founders, Marion and Solena, received the Invest in Provence award surrounded by their partners and team. The cooperation between Cearitis and Provence Promotion is bearing its fruits!

The Cearitis adventure began in 2020. Marion Canale and Solena Canale Parola, two cousins from a family with a long agricultural background, were looking for a place to set up their company that was close to their primary clients, fruit and olive growers. Provence was an obvious choice, so they contacted Provence Promotion, who put them in touch with the Technopôle de l’Arbois hub, which fosters the development of green and sustainable innovations in the Aix-Marseille-Provence metro area. It was a perfect match, and the agritech entrepreneurs and their company Cearitis were welcomed to the cleantech incubator.

Specialists in green, biocontrol solutions for the agricultural sector, the company has developed a breakthrough odor-based “push & pull” technology that attracts or repels the fruit flies that threaten fruit production. This provides an alternative to traditional insecticides and it fulfils the needs of environmentally conscious and organic fruit growers. The company’s specialized insect trap is called the Pira. It was perfected after several years of research and development, and it initially targeted the olive fruit fly, the Bactrocera olea, the main pest that threatens olive trees. Just four or five Cearitis traps can cover one hectare of olive trees.

The company’s research partners were also present at the inauguration of the model orchard on September 28, 2023. These partners include Yaël Grosjean, a research director at the CNRS national center for scientific research branch in Dijon, who is also associated with the specialized CSGA food sciences lab; Martine Berthelot-Grosjean, a research engineer at CNRS; the Sayens technology transfer center in the northeast of France; and Afyren, a French innovation company that focuses on organic solutions that can replace the petrochemical molecules.

The inauguration was also an opportunity to celebrate the impressive growth of this start-up, which, after completing a participatory financing round on the We Do Good platform in June 2020, announced that it had closed its first fundraising round of €800 000 euros with support from the Alumni Business Angels, the Banque Populaire Méditerranée, and several private investors. This financing will enable the company to move from the research stage to industrialization by partnering with Afyren for the supply of organically sourced raw materials. Since its creation, Cearitis has raised a total of €1.2 million.

A 2700-square-meter showcase orchard and 240 square meters of new office spaces

“In Provence, we found a complete ecosystem that trusts our project, supports our company, and shares our ambition to carry out great research and development on behalf of the planet,” said Marion Canale, who has already joined the board of directors of the French Tech Aix-Marseille-Région Sud network.

As one of France’s most promising agritech start-ups, Cearitis has won numerous innovation awards (CES Innovation Award, Be a Boss, iLab from BpiFrance...). Provence Promotion took the opportunity of the inauguration of the model orchard to add to the company’s trophy case by presenting it with the Invest in Provence award in recognition of this successful endeavor for both the economy and the environment in the Aix-Marseille area.

This model orchard is a further demonstration of the commitment that Cearitis has made to the local territory and it serves as an ideal showcase for their innovations while highlighting their dedication to biodiversity. To ensure it is the perfect place for testing environmentally friendly solutions, the orchard features a range of other elements, such as nesting boxes, composting systems, and site-specific trees and shrubs that create the required micro-ecosystem.

After the inauguration of the orchard, the roughly hundred people present took part in a tour of the company’s new premises that it opened after its stay at the Arbois cleantech incubator. The 240 square meters of space includes a chemistry laboratory featuring state-of-the-art equipment for extracting natural molecules and representing an investment of €200 000, an area for insect breeding, and several rooms dedicated to entomology to study insect behavior prior to field testing.

As the company has expanded, so have the team’s areas of expertise as it has added people dedicated to chemistry, entomology, communications, marketing, and sales. By the end of 2023, the team is expected to grow to 20 people. The company is also looking for new sources of international development, having established partnerships with Latin America and West Africa, regions that are particularly hard hit by the pest problem.

Another round of financing is planned for 2025 and Cearitis is already planning to enter new agricultural markets with current experiments to find organic solutions to controlling pests and diseases for cherry trees. They couldn’t have picked a better place for this new phase of development as Provence accounts for 35% of French cherry production, according to the French cherry growing association AOP Cerises de France.