Combining cutting-edge AI with expertise in plant biology, the team at Heritable Ag aims to make food crops and tree crops up to 30% more productive.
Five years ago, Heritable Ag started within Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) Moonshot factory. At the beginning of 2025, it officially launched as an independent company and entered its commercialization phase aiming to partner with seed companies, large-scale indoor producers, and forestry nurseries to improve plant resiliency and other desired traits.
[Half way through 2024, Google dispersed another agtech startup, Mineral]
“We want to democratize artificial intelligence tools for all of agriculture, but specifically in fruits, vegetables, other food crops and forestry,” says Tim Beissinger, CTO of Heritable Ag. “We care about food, we care about the environment, and we are market-driven to provide solutions.”
Its team applies artificial intelligence to predict how plant genomics drive performance in specific geographies and environment. This isn’t an application of transgenics but rather looking at quantitative genetics which can be used to optimize traits controlled by many different genes.
“The goal is to make it so plants can adapt to changing climates and also achieve outcomes based on desired traits such as flavor in fruits and vegetables or growth rate in forestry,” Beissinger says. “We see opportunity to identify genes and groups of genes previously unknown for how they improve plants.”
He adds the application of the Heritable Ag technology should also decrease the timeline in bringing advancements to the field while also decreasing overall costs.
