FoA 267: Tapping into the Microbiome for Animal Health with Chris Belnap of Resilient Biotics

Future of Agriculture

Resilient Biotics: https://resilientbiotics.com/

Fulcrum Global Capital: https://www.fgcvc.com/

My guest on today’s show is Chris Belnap, the CEO of Resilient Biotics, which is an early-stage animal health company that develops microbiome-derived, live therapeutics for livestock. In other words, they analyze the microbes that naturally live inside of cattle, then they administer those that are most beneficial to make the cattle more resilient to certain diseases. Specifically they are focused on a biological solution to bovine respiratory disease, which is currently very reliant on antibiotics.

Resilient Biotics is a portfolio company of Fulcrum Global Capital, which long time listeners will remember have partnered with me on several episodes in the past. What stands out about Fulcrum, and you can probably pick up on this if you’ve listened to all of these episodes with portfolio companies from their first fund, is that their LPs, their investors, are from production agriculture. They care about solving real problems in the food system.

One of the perks of these Fulcrum episodes for you and I is that we get to hear briefly from the investors first about what attracted them to this company, then we dive into the entrepreneur’s story. So joining me today is Fulcrum venture partner John Peryam, who along with his venture partners Duane Cantrell and Kevin Lockett, had been looking at potential companies who could help reduce reliance on antibiotics.