Biodiversity technologies

A couple of months ago, I was trying to explain to Niklas Azinger from Infinita Fund why Bio Bureau, my company, wasn’t a fit for a health-tech event.

I found myself focusing on what we are NOT: ocean tech, climate-tech, and even biotech—a term that can be misleading as it’s often associated with pharma.

The current color-coded system used to categorize various biotech fields (e.g., blue for marine biotech, green for agricultural biotech) isn’t very helpful as it requires remembering a code without clearly explaining the underlying work.

As I was running through this list of what we’re not, I realized that defining ourselves by exclusion wasn’t effective. That’s when I said, “We are a biodiversity-tech.”

It felt right because it was a term that reconcile all our initiatives: leveraging DNA technology to identify and catalog various species within Brazil’s rich ecosystems, working to introduce the first environmental gene-drive to the market, using environmental PCR to detect and track invasive species in the ocean, that goes beyond genes, genomes, genetics and genetic engineering to incorporate undertaking fieldwork, modeling, remote sensing, and ecological studies to promote biodiversity conservation

It felt right as it reconciled all our initiatives: using DNA technology to identify and catalogue various species within Brazil’s rich ecosystems, introducing the first environmental gene-drive to the market, and employing environmental PCR to detect and track invasive species in the ocean. Wok extends beyond biotechnology toolsL genes, genomes, genetics, and genetic engineering, to involve fieldwork, modeling, remote sensing, and ecological studies to promote biodiversity conservation.

I’m more and more appreciating the power of a simple statement: Biodiversity-tech.

No need to struggle explaining how identifying biodiversity and combating sun coral invasion, as well as controlling the golden mussel population, fit under the same umbrella. While this may be self-evident to us, it was hard to articulate within a one-hour timeframe, let alone in a single word.

Biodiversity matters! Even more so than the environment, oceans, and climate. Biodiversity is what makes our environment significant! There are many environments in the universe, but it’s biodiversity that makes ours truly unique. Historically, biodiversity may have been overlooked due to a lack of technology to identify, measure, comprehend, and utilize it effectively. But that’s precisely what biodiversity-tech aims to fix.

With Biodiversity-tech, our goal is not only to define our operational area, but also to encourage other companies to join us in the effort of species identification and conservation.

We’ve been in the top 10 of the biotech category of the 100 Open Startups ranking for the last three editions. However, we believe biodiversity-tech deserves its own segment and we will advocate for that.