Founder in Residence, Enabling Native Pollinators for Sustainable Agriculture

At DSV we’re looking for future Founders, entrepreneurially minded individuals with industry-specific technical and commercial domain expertise eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building.

You will join DSV’s venture creation programme as a Founder in Residence and work closely with the DSV team, using our methodology, to spin-out a new company. During the programme, you’ll work on all aspects related to venture creation in this opportunity area, including working out the optimal approach to solve for the desired outcome, building a team and building a viable business case. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.

THE OPPORTUNITY AREA

The global decline in pollinating insect populations, often called the "Insect Apocalypse," has far-reaching consequences, especially on the world's food security. Pollinator populations have decreased by 75% in protected areas in the last 27 years. Meanwhile, the demand for crops dependent on pollination has surged, with a 300% increase in the land dedicated to their cultivation in the past 50 years. The uncontrolled expansion of industrialised agriculture, coupled with the decline in natural pollinator populations, has compromised yields and food security on a global scale.

The conventional approach of relying heavily on honey bees, representing over 90% of managed pollinating insects, is proving insufficient. While honey bees play a crucial role in pollination, certain crops necessitate specialised pollinators for optimal yield, and honey bees are only sometimes the most efficient solution. This gap in efficient pollination creates a significant opportunity to explore the potential of native pollinator species.

This opportunity not only tackles the impending crisis in global food security but also aligns with the broader goals of promoting biodiversity, mitigating the effects of climate change, and fostering sustainable agricultural practices. The growing market for restoring and utilising native pollinator species presents a unique business opportunity that intersects environmental stewardship with economic viability. By bridging the gap between the "Insect Apocalypse" and the need for efficient crop pollination, this initiative aims to create a paradigm shift in agriculture towards a more resilient and sustainable future.

OUR APPROACH

One promising avenue involves identifying and cultivating "super pollinators," such as solitary bees. These native species have shown exceptional capabilities in performing pollination tasks, often outperforming honey bees in specific crops. For example, solitary bees, in particular, are capable of significantly increasing crop yields. However, addressing the challenge of their limited reproductive capacity opens up new possibilities for scaling up their commercial use in agriculture. The declining natural pollinator populations, coupled with the adverse effects of climate change and biodiversity loss, underscore the urgency of leveraging these organisms to enhance agricultural productivity sustainably.

Requirements

WHO SHOULD APPLY

We seek dynamic individuals to join our innovative team focused on revolutionising the pollination system by enhancing native pollinator species.

We are seeking individuals who possess the following skills and experience:

• Ambition to bring a new product on the market and turn it into a cutting-edge, fast-growing company;
• PhD / research or industrial experience in entomology (biology, protein production, agronomy, animal farming, insect farming, insectary, zoology, organism engineering);
• Experience in species / breed improvement programs;
• Experience in the design of a controlled culture system (hatchery, nursery, fattening);
• Experience experimental design for the metabolic modification of insects;
• Experience in developing diets and feed interventions in insects;
• Strong attention to detail;
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team;
• Demonstrated initiative with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Benefits

OUR OFFER

By joining DSV, you’ll be joining a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. Our team dedicate several hours every week to each Founder or founding team to provide tailored guidance, resources and feedback covering every aspect of what it takes to successfully launch a new venture from both the tech and commercial perspectives:

• We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology. Read more about one of our key tools here.
• We draw on opportunity area specific know-how provided by our network of Partners and Advisors;
• We provide £250k investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that’s needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key to get grant funding, which most often needs to be matched with private investment;
• We provide guaranteed income of £4,166 per month paid to each Founder in Residence as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and the pre-seed investment is secured;
• You and your co-founders will own a majority equity stake in the company;
• We provide continuous support after post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things); plus
• There are dozens of Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another - a unique resource to draw on.

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures is creating a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive.

We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out and invest into science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures.

We operate in 4 sectors: Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture and Computation, tackling the challenges defining those areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.