[100 Emerging Women Leaders] Rishita Changede’s startup Teora is building biotech solutions for agriculture and aquaculture

Growing up in a traditional Marwari family in Mumbai, where the emphasis was on following conventional paths like education and marriage, Rishita Changede chose to be an outlier with a passion for science and technology.

Her love for learning led to a Bachelor’s degree in Science from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, followed by a master’s in Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) that set the stage for a PhD in Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS). This opened doors to research opportunities at prestigious institutions like the Mechanobiology Institute at NUS, Columbia University.

As a scientist, Changede helped several startups in the medtech AI space. But her academic experiences fueled her entrepreneurial ambitions when she realised the potential of applying scientific innovation to real-world problems. This led to Teora Lifesciences in 2020, a biotech startup focused on using synthetic biology for sustainable solutions in aquaculture and agriculture.

“While growing up, I have seen struggles of farmers in and around Maharashtra, where unfortunately farmer suicide was reported frequently in the news. Farmers in both aquaculture and agriculture face issues due to losses caused by diseases among other things,” she tells HerStory.

Changede points out that once the disease strikes, the whole farm is wiped out. If this happens two-three times subsequently, this leads to abject poverty for the farmers. People are not willing to give loans and they basically lose their livelihoods.

“Current solutions include harmful chemicals, which are available only for a few diseases. These chemicals have a direct effect on our health too and this is unacceptable. Hence, we are driven to solve this problem by developing natural, sustainable, and clean solutions for diseases,” she adds.

Innovative solutions for aquaculture and agriculture

Teora offers a range of products designed to address disease management and improve growth in aquaculture.

Changede takes the example of shrimp. India is the largest exporter of shrimp globally. A baby shrimp, which weighs less than half a gram, needs to be protected against diseases. And, there are millions of them, so it’s impossible to inject each one of them. Viral diseases such as WSSV (white spot syndrome virus) can wipe out the entire pond in less than a week. This is a huge loss for the farmers. Additionally, similar viral diseases are affecting fish, she says.

Teora designs solutions for viral, bacterial, and parasitic problems.

“This is done using our SOLAQ platform that uses Nobel Prize winning technologies of 2024 to design the next generation vaccine and disease management solutions. We design peptide-based solutions and encapsulate them so that we can include them in the food, to make disease management practical and scalable for the farmers,” she says.

The first product on the SOLAQ platform, ShrimpGuard, tackles the White Spot Syndrome Virus in shrimp.

“We use synthetic biology to develop solutions that are produced in microbes and encapsulated in yeast, ensuring they are stable and effective, even in challenging environments. This allows us to deliver vaccines and growth enhancers orally, a major innovation in the industry,” she elaborates.

Oral vaccines, made from peptides, are coated on fish food and can be fed to the fish in aqua farms. This helps in disease control in a natural, sustainable and healthy way.

Teora is also developing products for other species and expanding its portfolio to include growth enhancers and disease management tools for agriculture.

Based in Bengaluru, Teora works with a diverse team with backgrounds in synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and precision fermentation.

India produced 17.5 million metric tonnes of fish in 2022-23, making it the third largest global producer of fish and is the largest exporter of shrimp. India is Teora’s primary market and it’s also working in Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries where aquaculture is an important food source.

“We operate on a B2B business model where we work with three segments—large farms, feed manufacturers and distributors. Leveraging these three GTM channels, we sell our impactful disease management (Guard Series) and growth management solutions to wider markets. This also helps us stay lean while expanding our market presence and focus on the R&D which is our bread and butter,” Changede says.

These solutions have helped farmers reduce their feed consumption and get better yield, thus adding directly to their bottom line. They are also helping reduce 15% to 20% of the CO2 emissions per kg of meat produced.

Since its inception, Teora has raised funding from a global network of investors spanning the US, Europe, Singapore, and India and through international grants and awards.

Recently, Changede won the TiE Women Global Pitch Competition 2024 at the TiE Bangalore Chapter level, which will take Teora to the TiE Global Summit 2024 (TGS24).

She reveals that a woman at the helm sees resistance from all sides, but how to solve the resistance becomes your personal journey.

“Focus on solving problems, rather than just technology. Don’t be afraid to take risks and make bold moves. Build a strong network and surround yourself with people who believe in your vision. Be patient and stay committed to your mission, even when the road gets tough,” Changede advises.