St. Louis Magazine
Benson Hill filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. Two months later a new private company, Confluence Genetics, emerged with Benson Hill’s core intellectual property, assets and market strategy.
The new company is “focused solely on optimizing soy quality traits and nutrient density,” while removing “anti-nutrient” elements of soybeans (oligosaccharides) that make them more difficult to digest,” Confluence Genetics’ CEO Kim Hurst explains.
Mike DeCamp, president and CEO of Expedition Ag Partners, local to St. Louis, is the lead investor. He counts it as a success that the innovation developed at Benson Hill remains local.
“It’s great to know there is a remnant of what that company was that’s still here in St. Louis with a new lease on life,” he says. “For this ecosystem to have been in a spot to be able to heal, in essence, what was maybe broken and relaunch it with a new life is a cool story as well.”
39 North Executive Director Emily Lohse-Busch agrees, adding the science, intellectual property, and other advancements from Benson Hill are still valuable.
“The fact that that company, IP, [and] assets were able to be purchased out of Chapter 11 by a group of investors that were primarily based here in St. Louis is a really exciting development,” she says. And, she adds, many former Benson Hill employees managed to stay in the region, scooped up by other companies here seeking strong plant-science talent. It speaks to the strength of the local agtech ecosystem.
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