Heritable Agriculture Inc., the AI-driven crop improvement specialist spun out of Google X, has announced the receipt of a $4.98 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
The funding is earmarked to support the development of the "Joint AI-driven Smallholder Omics aNalytics" (JASON) project. This initiative aims to leverage artificial intelligence and multi-omics technologies to engineer climate-resilient crops specifically for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Project JASON: Accelerating the Breeding Cycle
The core objective of the JASON project is to stand up a cloud-based AI genomics engine. This platform will identify gene targets and climate-adapted germplasm, dramatically shortening the timeline required to develop crops capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions such as drought and heat.
Tim Beissinger, CTO of Heritable Agriculture, explained the technical leap: "This project will allow us to stand up a cloud-based AI genomics engine, dramatically accelerating the discovery and deployment of climate-resilient germplasm. We anticipate cutting conventional breeding cycle time, transforming raw sequence data into high-confidence edit targets."
The Smallholder Crisis
The project addresses an acute crisis in global food security. Smallholder farmers in LMICs produce up to 80% of the food consumed in these regions but are disproportionately vulnerable to climatic shocks.
Prolonged drought and extreme heat are currently driving crop failures that deplete food reserves and eliminate income. Heritable’s technology works by mining ancient and modern crop genomes to find functional gene targets that improve physiological tolerance to these stressors, aiming to break the cycle of food insecurity and poverty.
Brad Zamft, CEO of Heritable Agriculture, framed the grant as a validation of the company's hybrid approach:
"This investment from the Gates Foundation shows strong support for our approach of combining AI, remote sensing, and omics data for global impact. 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, all at the same time."
About Heritable Agriculture
Based in San Carlos, California, Heritable Agriculture Inc. focuses on advancing all corners of the agricultural system through advanced genomics, remote sensing, and AI. The company originated as a project within Google's "moonshot" factory, X.
Heritable Agriculture Secures $4.98m Gates Foundation Grant to Deploy AI Genomics for Climate-Resilient Crops
News
January 29, 2026
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