Simplex: Eight Years of Building Fertilizers from Scratch — Russian Science Meets Growers’ Real Needs

Perm-based company Simplex, founded in 2018 from scratch, has spent eight years developing technologically advanced and safe plant nutrition systems tailored to Russian realities. As product manager Evgeny Demidov told  the idea emerged from the pain of growers themselves: store shelves offered either “Soviet agrochemistry” with unclear composition and impurities, or Western brands with astronomical price tags. The goal was simple — to create a product that speaks the user’s language while matching the best global analogs. The company quickly outgrew this initial mission and delved deeper into regional growing specifics. Instead of blindly copying Western formulas, Simplex developed its own scientifically grounded systems adapted to hard water, short daylight hours, and continental climate. This led to their philosophy of synergy, where the precision and power of minerals are enhanced by the wisdom of organic components — managing plant life at the molecular level.

Today, Simplex operates two production sites (Perm for fertilizers, Krasnokamsk for substrates) and its own R&D center with five agrochemists and biotechnologists. The company produces organomineral complexes for hydroponics, fruit and vegetable crops, and ornamental plants — focusing on balanced nutrition systems, not just bottles of NPK. Every stage, from water purification (reverse osmosis) to chelation and stabilization, is strictly controlled. Developing a new product takes 6 to 14 months. Future plans include improving peat and coconut substrates, developing a pure organic line, and expanding across CIS countries. Being a finalist in the People’s Prize of, the company says, confirms that their synergy strategy works in real life — reconciling the debate between chemical and organic fertilizers, and often surpassing Western analogs through deep adaptation to local conditions.