Rainbow Crops, a next-generation agtech company developing crop genetics with enhanced complex agronomic traits, has been awarded a $7 million grant from the Gates Foundation to advance climate-resilient crops research for global food security, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The funding will support the application of Rainbow Crops’ Trait Foundry™ platform to advance new genetic approaches for improving crop performance under heat and drought stress to meet the needs of small holder farmers.
With the aim of progressing climate-resilient crops and improved germplasm delivery, the platform will develop innovative approaches for identifying and combining alleles to support germination under challenging climatic conditions.
Rainbow Crops’ Trait Foundry™ platform integrates multiplex genome editing, AI, breeding, and phenotyping to enable the systematic identification and combination of optimized genetic variants underlying complex agronomic traits.
Unlike traditional breeding or single-gene approaches, the platform is designed to address traits controlled by multiple interacting genes, such as drought tolerance and plant vigor.
The research will initially focus on corn, sorghum, and rice — crops that are important to global food security, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The project places a strong emphasis on seedling performance under heat and drought stress, generating both scientific knowledge and trait-building blocks that can support future breeding efforts.
Rainbow Crops’ technology platform builds on years of research at VIB, a leading life sciences research institute where the underlying scientific work was developed.
As part of this collaboration, Rainbow Crops will work with the Laboratory of Professor Hilde Nelissen, from which the company was spun off, as well as with the VIB Transformation Facility and VIB Agro-Incubator.
Giacomo Bastianelli, Co-founder and CEO of Rainbow Crops, said the grant would help further strengthen the company’s technological capabilities.
“This grant allows us to further strengthen our technology platform and contribute foundational advances that enable more climate-resilient crops, with relevance to regions most vulnerable to environmental change,” he said.
The platform has already been validated end-to-end in corn, demonstrating the feasibility of Rainbow Crops’ multiplex genome editing and discovery approach across multiple traits.
In addition, Rainbow Crops will collaborate with other industry partners, including coordination on scientific approaches and data sharing to accelerate collective progress.
