After mass layoff alert, AgBiome execs and staff discuss what went wrong — and what’s next

The layoffs aren’t official. The company remains in business. Still, one AgBiome worker already spoke of their Research Triangle Park employer in the past tense.

“It was a really special place to work,” they told The News & Observer. “It’s going to be hard to find that culture somewhere else.”

In an all-hands meeting last Monday, AgBiome staff learned their jobs may be gone before the end of the year. Cuts at the 11-year-old Durham technology company could affect all 123 employees from the newest hires to the firm’s two CEOs.

The pesticide producer is working to find investors and partnerships to keep operations going but last week notified the state layoffs would otherwise take effect Dec. 15.

“At this point, I’m basically focused on finding a new position,” the AgBiome employee said. “It’s almost like the psyche of the company has shifted to ‘Let’s help each other out and get through this.’”

The employee, who requested not to be named, said AgBiome executives have for months been transparent about the challenges facing the company.

Despite seeing a record year for product sales, the firm failed to raise needed capital from investors, CEOs Eric Ward and Scott Uknes told The N&O in an interview Monday.

“This is completely externally driven by the financing market,” Uknes said.

AgBiome raised $116 million in 2021, and its two fungicide products are popular among growers of specialty crops like strawberries. Founded in 2012, the company has also received multiple grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, it has not scaled to the point of profitability and depends on outside sources of money.

A key setback came when the market for initial public offerings, which was at an all-time high in 2021, dried up. It wasn’t that AgBiome sought to go public itself this year, but Uknes said AgBiome owned a portion of another company that AgBiome expected to go public in either 2022 or 2023. Cash flow from this IPO would have allowed AgBiome to break even, he said.

When the other company (which Uknes and Ward did not name, citing confidentially agreements) instead remained private, AgBiome was forced to fundraise in a year when higher interest rates and inflation have suppressed venture-capital deals nationwide.

“People are really reluctant to be the first person in, to say I’m committing to invest in that company,” Ward said.

AgBiome employees: Stay or leave?

AgBiome launched its first product, called Howler, in 2019, and the EPA approved its second fungicide, called Theia, last year. Both are designed to protect crops from diseases.

The next few months should dictate what happens to these products, the company and its workforce.

In a statement last week, AgBiome said it is “confident” Howler and Theia will continue to be used “for many years to come.”

Ward would not reveal the company’s potential next plans “in any detail.” Among the various possibilities he listed are AgBiome remaining a “standalone” company for a period of time or getting “acquired by somebody relatively quickly.”

“We’re talking to potential strategic partners that could result in any combination of the technologies and the people that we’ve got ending up in a spot where they’re going to be able to continue to go forward,” he said.

The AgBiome employee, who works in the company’s commercial division, said, “The plan at this point is probably that the commercial arm of the company is going to be sold to another crop protection company, so the products would outlive the company there.”

Uknes affirmed a sale was possible but emphasized the company could still secure investments before the layoffs become effective in December.

The ambiguity of AgBiome’s future leaves employees with choices. To stay and potentially be brought on to a new venture? To stay and see the company saved by a last-minute investor? Or leave for another job in a tighter tech labor market?

All employees are officially based out of the Research Triangle Park headquarters, though some staff — mostly in sales — live in other states. Several workers have included the hashtag #OpenToWork on their LinkedIn profiles, indicating they’re in the job market.

Employees who remain at AgBiome through Dec. 15 will receive one month of severance pay, its CEOs said.

“There’s no playbook for this,” Ward said “All we’re going to do is be as open with people as we can. And as we see things getting more concrete, we will continue to communicate that to people.”

A second employee told the N&O he’s not ready to view the company as finished.

“To pretend it’s over is BS,” he said. “I‘m optimistic we’ll figure something out.”

However, the employee admitted he too will begin to apply elsewhere.

“I’m just hedging my bets,” he said.

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