Heritable Agriculture secures US$5M Gates Foundation grant for climate resilient crops in Africa

AFRICA – Heritable Agriculture Inc., an AI driven crop improvement company spun out of Google X, has received a US$4.98 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to support the development of climate resilient crops for smallholder farmers in Africa.

The funding backs the Joint AI driven Smallholder Omics aNalytics project, known as JASON. The initiative combines artificial intelligence with advanced omics tools, including genomics, alongside remote sensing data.

Heritable says the approach will help identify crop traits linked to drought and heat tolerance and shorten the time needed to move from research to seeds that farmers can grow.

The company says the project fits within the Gates Foundation’s wider focus on digital tools that reduce climate related yield losses in smallholder farming systems, which remain heavily dependent on rainfall.

“This project will allow us to stand up a cloud based AI genomics engine, dramatically accelerating the discovery and deployment of climate resilient germplasm,” said Tim Beissinger, Chief Technology Officer at Heritable Agriculture.

“We anticipate cutting conventional breeding cycle time, transforming raw sequence data into high confidence edit targets.”

Climate pressure on smallholder farmers

Smallholder farmers in low and middle income countries produce up to 80 percent of the food consumed locally. Many rely on rain fed systems and lack access to irrigation, crop insurance, or improved seed varieties. Rising temperatures and longer dry periods now push crops beyond their limits.

Drought often wipes out harvests and removes both food and income at household level. Heat stress reduces yields, weakens crops, and raises exposure to pests and diseases.

These pressures deepen food insecurity, increase malnutrition, and trap families in debt. In several regions, repeated climate shocks also force migration and reverse development gains.

Against this background, faster crop development has become urgent. Traditional breeding can take many years, a timeline many farming communities can no longer afford.

AI meets crop genomics

Heritable’s system uses artificial intelligence to study large datasets from ancient and modern crop genomes. By linking omics data with environmental and remote sensing information, the platform predicts which genes are most likely to support performance under drought and heat.

The JASON project will run on a cloud based AI platform designed to turn raw sequence data into practical outputs. These include clear gene targets that can move directly into crop development pipelines, cutting the gap between research and farmer ready planting material.

“This investment from the Gates Foundation shows strong support for our approach of combining AI, remote sensing, and omics data for global impact,” said Brad Zamft, Chief Executive Officer of Heritable Agriculture.

“A project like JASON represents over a decade of hard work from our team members shaping and sculpting a vision of an agricultural company that serves the global community, does good for the world, and builds a scalable business at the same time.”

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