BioFirst Group acquires full ownership of Biotrop, cementing its position as a global powerhouse in biologicals
BioFirst Group today announces that it has acquired the remaining 14.71% minority stake in Biotrop, Brazil’s leading biologicals company, from shareholders including Aqua Capital and Zempar.
By buying out the minority shareholders well ahead of schedule, BioFirst Group accelerates a bold strategic agenda: simplifying its structure, deepening Biotrop's integration across the group, and unlocking synergies that span the entire spectrum of biological crop protection. Biotrop's management remains invested, and Antonio Zem continues to serve on the Board of BioFirst Group, ensuring continuity of leadership and vision.
This transaction does not lead to additional liabilities as it was fully provisioned for.
Biotrop's fermenters, producing beneficial bacteria and fungi at scale.
A Brazilian leader operating at industrial scale
Biotrop, a division of BioFirst Group acquired in 2023, is a leading agtech player in Brazil's fast-growing market for biologicals, covering biopesticides, biostimulants and inoculants for open-field row and specialty crops. Operating in one of the most dynamic biologicals markets in the world - underpinned by a regulatory environment tailored to biological products - Biotrop is scaling at an unprecedented pace. In 2026 alone, the division's latest investment will produce 23 million litres of beneficial bacteria and 600 tonnes of beneficial fungi - enough to serve up to 50 million hectares of Brazilian farmland, offering growers a competitive, profitable, efficient and healthy alternative to conventional chemistry at a scale few can match.
"Becoming a fully integrated division of BioFirst Group opens up an entirely new level of opportunity for Biotrop," says Jonas Hipólito, President of Biotrop. "Backed by the group's expertise and global reach, we're ready to grow beyond Brazil and deliver our biological solutions to farmers in new markets - building more resilient, more sustainable and more profitable agriculture, at international scale."
This transaction follows BioFirst Group's recent move to take full ownership of its production activities in Morocco - another step in the group's disciplined build-out of its global biologicals platform.
A Biotrop specialist oversees biological production at the facility in Brazil.
A position unmatched in the industry
Where most players specialize in a single category, BioFirst Group brings the full breadth of biological crop protection together under one roof. Through Biotrop, the group delivers microbial solutions - biopesticides, biostimulants and inoculants. Through Biobest, it adds macrobiologicals and pollination. This makes BioFirst Group one of the very few companies on earth able to offer growers a complete, integrated biological toolbox, from soil to crop - and underpins its ambition to build the world's leading pure player in biologicals and to reach the top 10 of the global agricultural industry by 2034.
"Acquiring full ownership of Biotrop ahead of schedule is a decisive step in our strategy," says Jean-Marc Vandoorne, CEO of BioFirst Group. "It simplifies our structure, accelerates integration, and lets us unlock synergies across the group faster. Together, our divisions give growers a complete biological alternative - and that is exactly where the future of agriculture is heading."
"We are proud of what Biotrop has achieved and of its continued success under BioFirst's ownership. Biotrop is an entrepreneurial, science- and client-driven business, and in BioFirst it has found an owner well placed to support its next phase of growth - an inspiration for the sector and for Brazil's agricultural entrepreneurs," says Sebastian Popik, Managing Partner of Aqua Capital.
Jonas Hipólito, President of Biotrop, adds: “Closing the acquisition of the remaining shares completes one of those rare M&A journeys where everyone wins: the sellers, the buyer, and the people who built, and continue to build, Biotrop. We are grateful to our previous shareholders for their role in our growth. Now, with BioFirst, we move forward even stronger, with solid values and a clear vision to build the best and biggest biological player in the world.”
