FAYETTEVILLE — A startup founded at the University of Arkansas that seeks to mitigate herbicide drift won the Innovation Pacesetter award at the 36th annual Arkansas Business of the Year Awards.
CelluDot’s co-founder and CEO, Joseph Batta-Mpouma, Ph.D., said being named an Innovation Pacesetter raises the company’s profile across the state.
“It means citizens in Arkansas and key stakeholders in the industry, from farmers to agrochemical companies, start to pay close attention and value the socio-economic benefits we offer with our innovative technology,” Batta-Mpouma said.
Batta-Mpouma and CelluDot co-founder Gurshagan Kandhola, Ph.D., are working with University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture scientists to test CelluDot’s patent-pending product in field trials. The nanotechnology product was developed while Batta-Mpouma and Kandhola were doctoral students at the University of Arkansas.
Herbicide drift occurs when environmental spray application practices or tank mix composition causes herbicides to move off target, resulting in unintended damage to nearby crops or other vegetation. It is a $3.1 billion issue for the agriculture industry, according to Batta-Mpouma.
CelluDot addresses the issue with a nanocellulose-based formulation, trademarked as BioGrip™. Made from forestry waste, like sawdust, the technology has three functions: a drift-reducing agent, a volatility-reducing agent and a surfactant.
The eco-friendly product is designed to add weight to the herbicide spray droplets and make them fall more directly on target during field applications. It also works to reduce volatilization of the active ingredient without compromising its efficacy, noted Kandhola, chief technology officer of CelluDot.
Lisa Childs, Ph.D., assistant vice president for technology commercialization and patent attorney for the Division of Agriculture, said she was excited to see how CelluDot is moving Division of Agriculture research toward the marketplace.
“Licensing our patent-pending technologies to a company now recognized as an Innovation Pacesetter is confirmation of what we already knew,” Childs said. “UADA research provides solutions to real world problems. And it is just one part of the wide spectrum of research UADA has going on to support our land-grant mission.”
“This award highlights the team’s dedication to their mission of translating an academic innovation to the commercial marketplace,” said Parker Cole, Ph.D., associate director of technology commercialization. “It also is a testament to the support network within the Division of Agriculture, the U of A System and across the state to ensure our entrepreneurs are positioned for success.”
Batta-Mpouma and Kandhola formed the company in 2019 during their participation in the graduate New Venture Development courses as part of the Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Overseen by the University of Arkansas Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the certificate pairs graduate students from business and non-business disciplines on teams together, providing an incubation-like setting for exploring real business ideas and connecting new technologies to market opportunities.
Jin-Woo Kim, Ph.D., professor of biological and agricultural engineering for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture, supervised Batta-Mpouma while he earned his doctorate. Kim, who also teaches classes for the University of Arkansas College of Engineering, said the award was an “important step” in highlighting the technology.
“I take great pride in the accomplishments of Joe and Gurshagan, who have effectively translated the technology developed by our group into tangible results,” Kim said. “This award marks another important step in showing how practical and effective our technology can be.”
CelluDot was among five finalists that “are remaking an old industry or charting an entirely new course to create a new market,” according to Arkansas Business, which oversees the awards.
In September, CelluDot received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to optimize and commercialize their technology.
