GigaCrop announced it raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round of funding led by Playground Global.
Utilizing machine learning to improve enzymes, the company aims to boost photosynthesis, crop yields, and farmers’ profits. And GigaCrop’s technology will help plants use sunlight more efficiently, enabling agricultural producers of food, fiber, and fuel to grow more with the same water, fertilizer, and acreage.
The enzyme Rubisco holds back the full potential of photosynthesis, the plant process converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into biomass. And to compensate for slow Rubisco, plants synthesize huge amounts, making Rubisco the most abundant protein on earth. By utilizing machine learning and enzyme engineering, the GigaCrop team is working to bypass sluggish Rubisco entirely. The GigaCrop approach seeks to unlock yield far beyond what traditional plant breeding can deliver.
Chris Eiben created GigaCrop under the name Perlumi as he began a two-year entrepreneurial fellowship with the Berkeley Lab Cyclotron Road program in partnership with non-profit Activate. GigaCrop’s early research was funded by the U.S. DOE Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), the Grantham Foundation, and ARPA-E.
KEY QUOTES:
“Plants are part solar panel, part fabrication facility, which is pretty amazing. Farmers, and the plants they grow, support a robust and self-sufficient biomanufacturing economy. GigaCrop is developing crops to supply the additional yield needed to massively scale this sector, and benefit everyone in the process.”
– Chris Eiben, founder and CEO of GigaCrop
“Imagine a planet where plants are twice as efficient. GigaCrop has the potential to change the world by doubling crop yields. This breakthrough could drive a more energy-abundant future and unlock economic growth by transforming agriculture at its core.”
– Bruce Leak, general partner at Playground Global and GigaCrop board member
