Benson Hill Biosystems, an agricultural technology company unlocking the genetic potential of plants, today announced that is has commercially launched CropOS™, a cognitive engine using cloud biology to empower a new era of plant genomics innovation. CropOS uses powerful data analytics and biological knowledge to identify the most promising plant genetics in weeks instead of multiple growing seasons. Users can discover and breed tomorrow’s food and fuel crops with more precision and efficiency by leveraging the cognitive capability of CropOS, which grows more intelligent with every use and democratizes plant innovation.
“We need to empower more innovators to solve the world’s agricultural challenges,” said Benson Hill CoFounder and CEO Matthew Crisp. “By partnering CropOS with the broader agriculture community, from farmer coops to research institutions to businesses of all sizes, we are opening up innovation opportunities that were formerly accessible only to those with the largest and most well advanced research programs. Given the universal importance of agriculture in our global society, it’s crucial that we harness the power of cloud biology, and I’m excited that we are at the forefront of empowering this movement.”
The Transformative Power of Cloud Biology
Agricultural technology is being upended by the convergence of big data analytics, cloud computing, and biological expertise. This emerging discipline known as Cloud Biology, empowers researchers to solve formidable agricultural challenges such as increasing the metabolism of plants to improve crop yield. Formerly a slow and often costprohibitive process constrained by compute availability, barriers to information and length of growing season, enhancing the genetics of plants can be greatly accelerated through improved decision support for breeders and researchers.
“Benson Hill totally changes the game and allows both small and large companies to improve plant biology faster,” said Dan Watkins, partner at M ercury Fund, which invested in Benson Hill’s $8M Series A round. “Previously, only the largest companies or research institutions had the resources and expertise to do this, and even then, it could take years to get a research program to market. CropOS represents a uniquely powerful platform at the intersection of big data, machine learning and plant biology. Perhaps most impressive is that CropOS has already demonstrated, in ongoing field trials, that it can drive very significant increases in yield for major food crops.”
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