Allpawari

Biofertilizer designed to treat and heal farmland previously harmed by conventional fertilizers, while reducing pollution and having a lower energy consumption in its fabrication process.

Allpawari is an agrotech startup offering farmers a biofertilizer designed to treat and heal farmland previously damaged by conventional fertilizers. Through the implementation of synthetic biology in the product, it is expected to reduce atmospheric pollution, reduce energy expenditure and protect water resources. To achieve this, the production process is based on the use of bioreactors, tanks of controlled parameters in which microorganisms can grow and reproduce. We plan on harvesting our microorganisms in a centrifuge, and further process them to obtain solid, pelletized bacteria which will be freeze dried into the final product.

Our objective is to reduce the pollution that is generated both in production and in the inappropriate use of conventional fertilizers. Despite their impact, chemical fertilizers are still the most prevalent on the market due to their efficiency and simplicity. However, the production of these fertilizers alone generates 1.3 billion tons of greenhouse gasses each year, which worsens climate change. There is a clear reason why chemical fertilizers are harmful not only to the environment but also to agricultural land, which also affects farmers as they notice the changes in crop production, thus the changes in their income. Likewise, annually, the excess of fertilizers causes kilometers of oceans to become dead zones, highly toxic areas in which common life cannot exist. This negative impact on the environment and farmers can be reduced with a solution like ours.

By the year 2030, we aim to financially benefit more than 160,000 families in Brazil, as well as help reclaim 165,000 square kilometers of land used to produce quality food for millions of people. In this sense, Allpawari offers a product that will allow crops to grow properly without harming their environment. Thus providing crops rich in nutrients that will strengthen the health not only of farmers, who are generally their main consumers, but of the entire population that feeds on them. It is worth mentioning that, by taking better care of natural resources, such as soil and water, there will be a longer period of time for their sustainable use and, therefore, a greater contribution to the economy of farmers.

Last year, we engaged with farmers in a series of live interviews to better understand their needs and concerns. The farmers let us know that they were indeed concerned about the impending fertilizer resource crisis, but could not do anything about it as transitioning to other kinds of fertilizers (i.e organic, non-engineered biofertilizers, etc) would have a heavy negative effect on their annual income. They farmers also reported that they were worried about their soil’s health being degraded, and that they were already taking steps in order to try and minimize the effect through the use of cover crops. All of them were captivated by the idea of a fertilizer that would not only provide the necessary nutrients but also heal the soil at the same time.

As of this year, we plan on conducting a second set of interviews this February to keep learning more about the customers, this time in a bigger participant pool. We currently have contacted a couple of agricultural associations such as the Iowa Farmers Union that have and can help us contact more possible interviewees.

Allpawari was born in November 2020 as a startup idea to participate in the Hult Prize Competition 2021 - Food for Good Challenge. We were successful in the OnCampus stage and went on to participate in the Lima Regional Impact Summits in April 2021. For this, we consolidated our business model and worked on our idea itself, and managed to be part of the 6 finalists in the competition out of 40 international teams. We received good feedback from the judges and went on to compete in other international startup competitions, like Jump Chile and Innovator Science Challenge, in order to gain more experience and get funds to develop our prototype. Recently, we have decided on expanding our team so we can carry out a more efficient research process and fundraising, in order to develop our first prototype before 2022 ends. 

In summary, we have an established business model that has been revised by multiple advisors and experts in the field, and are looking for funding to take our project into the prototype level, as we believe it has potential to be the next standard fertilizer.

Our solution is made possible thanks to biotechnology, specifically synthetic biology. This technology enables us to design organisms for useful purposes. In this case, we are engineering bacteria and giving them the capability to provide nitrogen and other plant nutrients to the crops of corn and soybean. It’s worth mentioning that as Allpawari is a living product, we have special attention to its interaction with other organisms.

Currently, our solution has not been launched yet. However, to illustrate the impact that we seek in Allpawari, we have made an 8-year projection plan considering product loyalty. This plan suggests that, by the year 2030, we aim to economically benefit more than 160,000 families in Brazil, as well as help heal back 165,000 squared km of land used to produce quality food for millions of people.

By the middle of next year, we expect to have our prototype ready for its validation. To achieve this, we plan to contact more advisors that will allow us to have broader feedback. Also, we look forward to activate our social networks and expand the team to work more efficiently. With this, we plan to obtain sponsors who can provide the necessary funds to cover the costs of supplies and test equipment. Likewise, we realize that making alliances with other startups or organizations is of utmost importance. For that reason, we plan keep in contact with the allies we currently have and keep establishing partnerships throughout the research process.

Currently, the way we’re measuring our progress is by validating our ideas and hypotheses.  

We are able to validate our project proposal thanks to the assistance of our advisors, who are experts in the field. We have both university professors and entrepreneurs as advisors, and they have helped us and will continue to help us better model the base idea. Because of this, we are sure to maintain a state of constant improvement throughout our journey. 

After getting funds and developing our prototype, we will objectively measure its effectiveness through scientific methods (while keeping in check with our advisors). After determining the prototype meets the product expectations, we will begin pitching to investors in order to get funds to establish the company.

The main barrier we currently face is an economical one. In our university, students need to finance their own projects in order to use the laboratories. Therefore, we are currently planning different ways to get revenue to develop our prototype. This includes applying to competitions and grants, pitching to possible investors and companies, and generating the money ourselves through raffles and paid classes.

Our team is made up of bioengineering, environmental engineering and mechatronic engineering students. The diversity in careers gives us different perspectives, skills and points of views to tackle many aspects of the problem we are trying to solve. For example, we can combine our environmental engineering members’ knowledge of soil, climate change and nutrient cycles with our bioengineering members’ knowledge of synthetic biology and genetic engineering to design our solution. Additionally, our mentors and advisors have helped us and will continue to help us develop the scientific and business areas of Allpawari, being biotechnology PhDs and entrepreneurs. 

Additionally, being based in Peru, we have access to contact local and South American farmers in order to carry out interviews and understand their needs first-hand, as well as USA farmers.

We are allied with the Iowa Farmers Union, who have helped us get insight about farming practices and farmer's needs. We are also allied with BioUTEC, a student organization from UTEC university that focuses on democratizing biotechnology. Finally we have 2 advisors in the biotechnological field and 4 advisors in the business and management field who have been mentoring us throughout the development of the project.