Computomics Raises EUR 6.3 Mio to Scale Climate-Smart Plant Breeding

Computomics was founded in 2012 as a spin-off of the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen. Its team comprises leading experts in machine learning, plant breeding, and bioinformatics.  

Computomics builds machine learning models that predict how a given genotype will perform under a given set of conditions, combining genomic data with environmental data such as temperature, rainfall and soil, and with field measurements. Breeders use the predictions to answer questions that trial data alone cannot answer in time: which candidates hold up under hotter and drier conditions, which are stable across environments rather than strong in one, and where a variety should be placed. Its ×SeedScore® platform runs those predictions at the scale of a commercial breeding program. Customers include commercial breeders working in field crops, forages, vegetables and specialty crops. 

"Breeders have never lacked ambition about climate resilience. What they have lacked is a way to see it before the field tells them, which takes years they no longer have," said Dr. Sebastian J. Schultheiss, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Computomics. "This financing is about getting that capability into far more breeding programs, faster." 

Read the full article here: https://www.computomics.com/news-reader/eur-6.3-million-raised.html