Benson Hill Bio Brings Power of Big Data to Small Plant Breeders
Summary
Benson Hill Bio Brings Power of Big Data to Small Plant Breeders Xconomy Raleigh-Durham — When farmers want crops that have a better shot at resisting disease or taking up nutrients, they use breeding techniques to develop new varieties.Benson Hill Biosystems, which splits its operations between St. Louis, MO, and Durham, NC, is trying to level the field for those who don’t have access to advanced breeding technology.The agtech startup’s software, called CropOS, predicts biological outcomes, which helps farmers, greenhouses, and researchers discover traits and make better breeding decisions, says CEO Matthew Crisp.After the company raised $100 million in a Series C round in July, CEO David Perry explained to Xconomy that Indigo’s software uses machine-learning techniques to predict which microbes will help a plant when confronted with a stressor, such as drought.Analyzing that data, the software helps customers identify which seeds will produce the desired traits, allowing researchers to bypass what would ordinarily take multiple generations of experimentation, Crisp says.
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