Computomics Raises €6.3M for Climate-Smart Crop Breeding

German agritech innovator Computomics has successfully closed a €6.3 million Series B funding round, signaling a significant boost for its mission to equip crop breeders with advanced tools to combat escalating climate challenges. The investment, spearheaded by Convent Capital Agri Food Fund with a substantial €5 million contribution, will accelerate the commercial deployment of the company's predictive breeding platform. This infusion of capital arrives at a critical juncture, as European agriculture grapples with increasingly severe heatwaves and prolonged droughts, impacting yields across vital crops.

The funding round saw robust participation from existing backers, including High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), MBG Baden-Württemberg, and Amathaon Capital, alongside contributions from founders and scientific advisors. The European Union, through the InvestEU Fund, also provides crucial support, underscoring the strategic importance of Computomics' work in enhancing agricultural resilience. Stephen McLoughlin, Partner at Convent Capital Agri Food Fund, highlighted the alignment between commercial success and environmental impact, stating, “We back companies whose environmental impact grows with their commercial success. Better breeding predictions mean fewer wasted seasons and varieties that hold up in the field, so the impact case and the business case point the same way.”

Founded in 2012 as a spin-off from the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Biology and the University of Tübingen, Computomics leverages sophisticated machine learning models. These models forecast genotype performance under diverse environmental conditions by integrating genomic data with granular environmental factors like temperature, precipitation, and soil composition, augmented by real-world field observations. This data-driven approach allows breeders to make informed decisions, identifying crop varieties that can withstand hotter, drier climates and exhibit consistent performance across varied environments—a crucial advantage given the rapid pace of climate change.

The company's flagship platform, ×SeedScore®, enables these predictive analyses at the scale required for commercial breeding programs. Its client base spans diverse agricultural sectors, including 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,” commented Dr. Sebastian J. Schultheiss, co-founder and CEO of Computomics. “This financing is about getting that capability into far more breeding programs, faster.”

Computomics' comprehensive suite of climate-smart breeding solutions includes ×SeedScore®, CropCompass, and BreedScope. Further enhancing its offering, the company's Pantograph omics data hub facilitates trait discovery through pangenome analysis, while MORPHEUS and MEGAN7 are dedicated to microbiome applications. The German federal government recognizes the significance of AI-driven breeding for stress-resistant crops as a key strategy within its High-Tech Agenda. Dr. Frank Hensel, Principal at High-Tech Gründerfonds, affirmed this, noting, “AI-based breeding of stress-resistant crops is part of the German federal government’s High-Tech Agenda for good reason: it is one of the levers that matter most as the climate shifts.”

The fresh capital injection is earmarked for scaling the commercial delivery of Computomics' advanced platform, aiming to integrate its predictive capabilities into a greater number of breeding programs more rapidly. This strategic expansion is vital as global food security faces increasing pressure from unpredictable weather patterns, making climate-resilient crop development a paramount concern for the agricultural industry worldwide.