It’s Tuesday, and today we’re covering Puna Bio, a startup from Argentina operating in the agricultural space. Founded by Franco Levis, María Eugenia Farías, Elisa Violeta Bertini, and Carolina Beefiore, the company recently landed a Series A round led by Corteva Catalyst, with participation from At One Ventures, SP Ventures, SOSV, Builders VC, and Dalus Capital.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard about soil degradation caused by climate change, poor soil management, pollution, and a host of other factors. Puna Bio is one of the companies trying to do something about that.

To transform farming, Puna Bio is betting on extremophiles—microbes that evolved over billions of years to survive—and thrive—in the harshest conditions imaginable: high-altitude deserts, salt lakes, nutrient-poor soils, you name it. These microbes have adapted to extract and process essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus with remarkable efficiency—because they had to.

Puna Bio takes these microbes and enhances them with other ingredients (like gum arabic or xanthan gum) that stabilize and preserve them while helping them stick to seeds.

Using extremophiles, Puna Bio has created two products:

To develops its products, Puna Bio went through a four stage process:

A key part of Puna Bio’s pitch is that their product doesn’t replace anything. Farmers can keep buying what they already do and just add Puna Bio’s solution to the mix. Plus, extremophiles don’t outcompete existing microbes—they don’t disrupt local ecosystems. In fact, Puna Bio found their effect to be synergetic.

When you think of innovation in agtech, you probably picture scientists in labs mixing stuff in beakers. And sure, Puna Bio has its own labs. But the value creation starts way before that.

Their product is all about creating something natural—not something brewed entirely in a lab—which also means fewer environmental risks. But that also means they have to go out and get those microbes. From nature.

This part of the process is weirdly similar to mining. No giant equipment, no ecological damage—but the same key trait: you have to know where to look. That makes it hard to replicate—and creates a serious edge for Puna Bio.

Extremophiles thrive in some of the toughest environments out there. So to find them, you need to venture into remote, inhospitable areas—and stick around long enough to collect meaningful samples. As Franco Levis put it:

There’s obvious value in being one of the few people who know where these microbes are, how to extract them, and how to manage them. But in this case, the adventuring spirit is a competitive asset too. Unlike traditional mining—where entire towns get built—this is more of an ongoing expedition than an industrial operation.

Of course, finding the microbes is just one side of the coin. The other is making sure the product actually gets into farmers’ hands—at scale, and reliably. That part looks a lot more like traditional business in this space.

To distribute its product, Puna Bio utilizes three channels:

Argentina grows a wide variety of crops, but the two that matter most to Puna Bio:

Agriculture overall contributes 15.7% to GDP and 10.6% to tax revenues. Argentina is the third-largest net food exporter in the world. And with the peso being in flux, maintaining food security at home is essential to avoid disaster.

But Argentina’s soil is struggling. The country ranks second in the world for salt-affected soils, just behind Australia. Over 56% of land is affected by salinity and sodicity—both of which limit the plants’ ability to absorb water.

The bigger issue behind it are droughts. In Buenos Aires, second-crop soybean yields are expected to drop by 80–90%. On a national level, while total output might remain stable, the quality is falling fast: 34% of the soybean crop is now rated poor, compared to just 18% last year.

We’re not here to debate climate change, but it’s hard to argue with this: productivity is declining, and urgent action is needed.

Bio-friendly soil additives make up just 17.4% of Argentina’s phytosanitary market—that’s anything related to plant health. But the market is growing 20% a year and that share is projected to hit 24% by 2029. Right now, only 27.7% of the market uses any kind of bio-input. The main roadblock to larger adoption are a lack of awareness on how to incorporate them into standard ag practices.

Meanwhile, Argentina remains one of the global leaders in herbicide use—which, as we know, are not ideal. Regulations around bio-inputs have improved, but pushing farmers to change habits will require both sustained government support and awareness campaigns from companies like

No matter how great your product is, droughts and floods still win. Puna Bio can soften some of nature’s blows, but not all. Farmers’ need and ability to buy products like this is directly tied to weather. So is Puna Bio’s revenue.

The company has its eyes on the U.S. and Brazil—massive soybean markets. But both come with their own regulatory processes, especially for foreign players. And since agriculture is so climate-dependent, working in just one market, i.e. Argentina, isn’t a great option.

This is a low-margin, credit-driven industry with tough pricing. Until you reach scale, it’s hard to compete. Distributors want the products that bring in the most margin, so Puna Bio either has to scale fast or prove their product is truly differentiated.

When one of your co-founders has spent decades studying an area that everyone else has ignored—that’s a serious edge. You can’t brute-force that kind of knowledge. Even with plenty of capital, it takes time. The longer Puna Bio stays focused on this niche, the wider the moat becomes. For a startup, deep specialization in a niche market is one of the best ways to win, if not the only way for most.

Argentina imports 63% of its fertilizers, and they’re priced in USD. Even with the peso’s recent recovery, local producers still have an edge. Sure, Puna Bio still relies on imported equipment, but there’s a clear currency-driven advantage that helps offset the scale problem.

There’s no reason to think these microbes only work for just a few crops. There’s real potential to expand to new crops—and new geographies.

It’s fascinating to see a business where part of the value creation hinges on accumulated knowledge. It’s not the kind of know-how you can hack or shortcut—it’s fundamentally different from the usual business expertise. You need 20 years of lived experience in the Puna de Atacama to know exactly what to look for. That kind of knowledge is a cornered resource—and a rare one.