It actually smells like the herb thyme inside AgroSphere’s new manufacturing plant on Route 29 in Charlottesville where company founders Payam Pourtaheri and Ameer Shakeel brew batches of the novel bio-fungicide they launched in 2025.
“It smells good,” says Pourtaheri. “Some growers like to spray it just because it smells good. It smells better than the chemicals. Good energy, good smells, good vibes.”
On Wednesday, Governor Abigail Spanberger joined Pourtaheri, Shakeel, and about 200 others to officially christen the new research and development facility.
It’s the latest vote of confidence in the two UVA schoolmates who, over the last decade, have amassed more than $37 million in capital from the state and investors and added 53 jobs to the local economy.
“That early access to capital was a catalyst for others to invest, right?” said Governor Spanberger. “We believe in AgroSpheres, and other people should, too.”
As undergraduate engineering students at UVA, Pourtaheri and Shakeel got interested in environmentally friendly alternatives to agricultural pest control, and tested some of their ideas on grapes at Early Mountain, King Family, and Veritas Vineyards. AgroSpheres’ first commercially available product, FUN-THYME, launched last year and uses the anti-fungal properties of the thyme plant to protect apple, berry, and grape crops from things like grey mold, which can decimate a harvest.
After shipping out several pallets of FUN-THYME to customers this coming Monday, Pourtaheri says they’ll be turning their attention next to developing eco-friendly insecticides—welcome news as spotted lantern flies descend on Central Virginia over the next couple of weeks.