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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 21, 2025 11 it about 75% faster than the current traditional methods," he said. "Those are the paradigm shifts that I'm talking about." For hard-pressed farmers, he says, cutting costs on raising crops is essential. "At almost break-even prices right now, especially as we look at tariffs and everything that's going on in the world and what our growers are facing — every cent counts," he said. "Being able to bring molecules to the market faster, cheaper is crucial." The startup has so far raised $150 million over several fund- raising rounds. Wurzer, the CFO, says the company is "always in fundraising mode." "We have cash to the end of '26, but we also have a very strong investor syndicate that is something that we can leverage," he said. Enko doesn't yet have any products in regulatory review, but some are close, and it's continuing to cultivate partnerships with bigger companies that it hopes will facilitate the next step to commercialization. "One of our new herbicides that we just got through having our field trials in Europe is showing excellent control of black grass, which is a major challenge for our European wheat farmers," Klemm said. "The space that Enko is focused on is about a $73 billion market worldwide, and it's growing at 3% to 4% yearly." In addition to black grass, which can negatively impact wheat and barley crop yields, Enko's pesticide pipeline is targeting corn root worm; Asian rust, which is a fungal disease; the "superweed" Palmer Amaranth; aphids; and white flies. The ultimate timeline to getting a product on the market will depend on the regulatory journey. Typi- cally in the U.S., that has meant a five- to seven-year review period, but the Trump administration's changes have brought uncertainty. "Full transparency, right now with everything that's happening with government agencies and changes in the (Environmental Protection Agency), those timelines have all been, let's say, disrupted," Klemm said. Enko is also looking to other jurisdictions where the journey may be more predictable. In Australia, for instance, regulatory review can be achieved in two years. "We need functional regulatory bodies and functional government agencies to continue to bring technologies and move technol- ogies forward so that those are available to our growers, to be able to continue to meet the needs that they have," Klemm said. BANK FOR COMMERCIAL PURCHASE MORTGAGES* Member FDIC | Equal Housing Lender *Based on 2024 market share data by The Warren Group. ThomastonSB.com | 860.283.1874 Learn More Flexible Financing Options Competitive Rates Commercial Lending Experts (Left) Enko has invested in robotics in its labs to complete repetitive tasks. (Right) The entire library of molecules that Enko tests for efficacy against pests can live in a tiny test tube.