The IZIgroup acquisition of Cotesia: extending life-science expertise to plant health

IZIgroup, the Lyon-based specialist in how people interact with the living world

Founded in 2013 and based in Lyon, IZIgroup has built itself around a distinctive speciality: the interaction between people and the living world — from managing invasive species to preserving biodiversity. Chaired by Romain Lasseur, its founder and scientific director, the group brings together four complementary departments: IZInovation (an R&D and innovation platform, from initial idea to the regulatory phase), IZIPest (a leading training centre for the pest control industry), IZIDiag (an independent audit firm) and IZIgreen (biodiversity solutions for CSR). Its strategy: to consolidate this position as an expert on the living world by moving into adjacent fields — and plant health, the natural frontier of its scientific territory, is the most coherent extension.

Cotesia and Gong-Eco, plant health expertise from the Béarn

Based in Lucq-de-Béarn, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of south-west France, Cotesia and Gong-Eco are two sister companies specialising in plant health and crop protection — from research and development to field trials, through to auditing and advising agricultural businesses. What sets them apart is their command of trials conducted under Good Experimental Practice (GEP), the standard that makes results admissible in regulatory dossiers — know-how carried by a team of experts: a study director responsible for GEP and dedicated study engineers. Even the name Cotesia is borrowed from a genus of parasitoid wasps emblematic of biocontrol. Management continuity is complete: Hervé Quénin, who ran both companies, becomes IZIgroup's Scientific Director for Plant Health, and the teams carry on their work unchanged — Cotesia joining the IZInovation department, Gong-Eco the IZIDiag department.

What the press said

The deal, effective on 1 January 2024, was announced in a joint press release in early February and picked up by the sector's trade press. The two reference publications:

Why the IZIgroup acquisition of Cotesia, and why these targets

For IZIgroup, the issue was scientific coherence: a group that defines itself by the interaction between people and the living world — public health, invasive species, biodiversity — could not leave plant health outside its scope for long, at a time when biocontrol and alternative solutions are reshaping crop protection. Rather than building this capability in-house, a lengthy process when it requires accreditations and track record, the group acquired an established platform in one move: the expertise, the standards and the team. "This acquisition marks a strategic step in our expansion," said Romain Lasseur, Chairman and Scientific Director of IZIgroup — stressing how it strengthens the group's distinctive focus on the interaction between people and the living world.

On the target side, Cotesia and Gong-Eco offered a profile the market rarely produces: end-to-end plant health expertise — R&D, experimentation under the GEP standard, audit and advisory — carried by a tight-knit scientific team around a recognised leader. For companies of this size, joining a multi-department group offers what stand-alone growth cannot: investment capacity, access to IZInovation's portfolio of industrial clients, and complementarity with an established audit firm. For the acquirer, the dual integration chosen — Cotesia's R&D into IZInovation, Gong-Eco's audit into IZIDiag — preserves what gives the trade its value: independent expertise, with each activity joining the department that matches its professional ethics.

Biocontrol, a new frontier for consolidation

This deal illustrates a deep transition in European agriculture: the gradual withdrawal of conventional plant protection substances and the rise of biocontrol — solutions based on natural mechanisms, from beneficial insects to semiochemicals — are shifting value towards those who can prove that alternatives work. Every new solution must clear a demanding regulatory pathway, and GEP-certified trial platforms are an essential gateway: a rare, scientific and accredited link that life-science service groups are starting to integrate, just as manufacturers integrate their laboratories.

The deal is also the story of a successful domestic transfer of expertise: two scientific companies from the Béarn join a Lyon-based group that backs them without absorbing them — activities unchanged, team retained, leader promoted to group scientific director. Skills stay in the region, close to the trial plots, and the know-how is anchored in an organisation able to scale it: the consolidation of life-science services under way across Europe finds its French version here — through measured external growth, one area of expertise at a time.

What Collaboration Capital brought to this buy-side mandate

On this deal, Collaboration Capital acted as buy-side adviser. Acquiring regulated scientific expertise plays out in four stages — and when the target is essentially a team of experts and its accreditations, each stage calls for particular precision.