Protecting Farmers, Consumers and the Environment: ClearLeaf Joins Rev
ClearLeaf, founded by Lawrence Pratt, Néstor Zúñiga, and Agustin Büchert, is transforming agriculture by creating safe fungicides and bactericides for both pre- and post-harvest use across a variety of crops. Their technology is patented, and organic certified in the EU and Japan. ClearLeaf’s mission is to reduce reliance on toxic agricultural chemicals while safeguarding human health and the environment.
What is your “origin story”?
GotaBlanca has its origins as a dermatological product for human use, which some of ClearLeaf’s founders created as a product that combined the antimicrobial properties of silver, the coating ability of surface microfilms, and the regenerating properties of fatty acids and Vitamin E. This medical product, presented in the form of a liquid emulsion in a spray bottle, was successfully approved by the US FDA as safe and effective for the treatment of dermatitis and the prevention of infection associated with damaged skin.
A few years later, the idea of applying the same product and principle to plant protection rather than human skin was visualized. In a meeting updating our USFDA regulatory status for dermatological products, the team was staring out at the coffee field across the street from our offices, lamenting the harm done by coffee leaf rust on the coffee crop. This was our eureka moment: “Let’s protect and heal crops the same way we protect and heal human skin – safely and effectively with our superior design and technology.” We realized we had the technology, a great team, and an amazing opportunity to solve a pressing multi-billion-dollar problem. After a few adjustments to the formulation and the adding of new talent – new associates with expertise in finance and business development – we quickly realized that together we could have real impact. We became ClearLeaf and brought forward GotaBlanca the following year.
What customer need is your company attempting to address?
Quite simply, the world needs GotaBlanca. ClearLeaf offers powerful, sustainable, safe, healthy, simple, effective, contact action products that control fungal and bacterial pests in pre- and post-harvest agronomical applications. GotaBlanca will truly do the job and have no negative impact on the environment or human health.
In spite of known, grave concerns about toxic agricultural chemicals, the use of fungicides and bactericides continues to increase at a rate much greater than agricultural production. This increased usage is largely in existing products that are known to be dangerous, many of which are slated for bans in the EU and other jurisdictions. A clear example is Mancozeb, a widely used fungicide which is harmful to health and the environment. EU Member States voted not to renew its license for use, although the deadline for its use keeps being pushed forward. This makes the market ripe for innovative solutions that substitute these highly sought-after toxins.
Decades of work to identify safer synthetic chemical approaches to management of ever tougher and more pervasive and resistant pathogens are simply not yielding results. Biological-oriented strategies will take decades to fully develop as substitutes for broad-spectrum products, and will leave out many crops, geographies (particularly poorer countries) and applications. Purely organic nature-derived solutions have very limited effectiveness, and the more effective options are too costly to be viable. Thousands of different products will need to be developed over the coming decades to do what GotaBlanca can do today.
Do you have any recent company milestones or accomplishments you would like to share?
We won a $250,000 prize at the Grow NY Summit in November 2024. In April 2025, we won the 2025 MassChallenge RESOLVE Award in the Climate category, and in May, we secured $3.5 million in Seed Series funding.
Where do you envision your company a year from now?
ClearLeaf´s goal in the next 5 years is to have GotaBlanca registered and available for sale in at least two countries in every continent in the world, so we prove to any potential acquirer of the company that the business model is scalable, profitable and that it has already secured an active audience willing to change their pest control strategies and values with those of ClearLeaf. We will continue to advance and accelerate our core activities, with the objective of positioning ClearLeaf as an attractive acquisition candidate for an exit in 4 to 6 years.