With more than 10 years of research and four years of commercial availability, NewLeaf Symbiotics is continuing to chart its own course in bringing row crop and specialty solutions via pink-pigmented facultative methylotrophs (PPFMs).
Its trajectory includes product placement on just under 1 million acres four years ago to having product on more than 8.5 million acres in 2025. Next year’s goal is to double that.
“We’re focused on the next thing, not just the right now,” says Brent Smith, CEO at NewLeaf Symbiotics. “But the right now feels pretty good”
The company recently opened a new formulation office with a larger footprint, advanced laboratories, and strategic location in St. Louis.
“Our success is because we got good at consistency with a tricky microbe class,” Smith says. “The focus is: formulation, optimization and performance. With that we will continue to be consistent.”
The company chose a novel go-to-market in licensing its technologies to partner companies for product placement and sales. Currently, it has a handful of technologies available via 100 commercially available products. The portfolio includes an EPA-registered bioinsecticide and biostimulants for row crops including corn, soybeans, cotton and peanuts, as well as a vegetative transfer biostimulant. Leaders says there’s more to come with launches for 2026, pending regulatory approval.
“We’ve found traction commercially,” says Aaron Kelley, chief commercial officer. “We have three launches in 2026, an EPA-registered biofungicide, nitrogen use efficiency technology, and a specialty biostimulant for transplant vegetables.”
Kelley credits trust built over time for the product growth. He points to the 70% win rate the company boosts as well as a two-year shelf life for its products.
“Every technology that becomes commercially available from NewLeaf has been field tested with multi-year, multi-location, plots of 10+ acres. We want our partners to have confidence in the products they are recommending to their customers.”
Kelley says biologicals can help farmers thread the needle with integrated pest management and layered crop protection.
“It’s been an interesting development to see how people are seeing biologicals as part of integrated pest management,” he says. “And there’s still more to learn and more yield to gain when our technologies are used along with others.”
