Kapsera

Kapsera, established in 2018 by Antoine Drevelle and Jérôme Bibette, is a French enterprise focused on developing formulation technologies for the agricultural and nutrition sectors. The company's genesis stems from CEO Antoine Drevelle's experience in the industrial biotech sector, where he identified a critical challenge: the difficulty of commercializing promising microbial biosolutions due to their instability in real-world field conditions. This insight led to the creation of Kapsera, which is headquartered in Bordeaux, France—a region recognized for its advancements in agri-food and ecological transition.

The company's core offering is a proprietary microfluidic encapsulation technology that protects and enhances the performance of natural active substances. This technology produces biodegradable, alginate-based microcapsules designed to house sensitive biological inputs like microbes, biopesticides, probiotics, and pheromones. The capsules feature a liquid core, optimized to maintain the viability of microorganisms, and a semi-porous shell made from brown algae extract, which allows for the exchange of gases and nutrients. Ranging in size from 100 to 500 micrometers, these capsules are compatible with standard agricultural spraying equipment, addressing a major bottleneck in the adoption of bio-inputs.

Kapsera operates on a business-to-business model, partnering with companies in the agriculture, human nutrition, and animal feed industries that want to distribute their own active ingredients using Kapsera's encapsulation solution. The firm signs collaboration agreements with these industrial partners to develop and supply the natural encapsulated products. After initially focusing on agriculture, Kapsera has expanded its scope to include the human and animal nutrition markets, developing solutions for the controlled release of probiotics and vitamins. This expansion was facilitated by securing exclusive exploitation rights for its encapsulation technology.

Financially, Kapsera has secured significant investment to fuel its growth. An initial seed funding round of €700,000 in March 2019 was followed by backing from Bpifrance in 2020. A major Series A funding round in November 2024 raised €4.2 million, led by Banque des Territoires with participation from The Yield Lab Europe and existing investor Demeter. This capital is being used to establish the company's first industrial production unit in Bordeaux, with the goal of reaching an annual production capacity of over 200 tons by 2027 and creating 20 new jobs by 2026.

Keywords: microencapsulation technology, bio-inputs, biofertilizers, biopesticides, sustainable agriculture, alginate capsules, microbial formulation, controlled release, animal nutrition, human nutrition, agricultural biotechnology, crop protection, soil biodiversity, microfluidics, natural active substances, probiotics encapsulation, agtech, foodtech, biosolutions, biodegradable materials