Overview
Rainbow Crops addresses agriculture's challenge of improving complex traits like drought resilience and yield stability that are governed by complex biological networks. Their Trait Foundry™ platform integrates prediction, engineering, validation and learning to accelerate crop improvement, supported by Gates Foundation programmes and strategic industry partnerships.
Key people
In the news
- Excited to be speaking at SynBioBeta 2027! Join me May 3-6 in San Jose, CA: https://lnkd.in/dGkCv2_K #synbiobeta2027
- Congratulations to VIB on an incredible 30 years! Simply put, Rainbow Crops wouldn’t be where it is today without the support of VIB. Our co-founder, Prof Hilde Nelissen is a leading researcher at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, and her scientific advice has been invaluable to the business. We’ve also benefitted from VIB’s extensive infrastructure, including its state-of-the-art greenhouses and Agro-Incubator. We are very grateful to VIB for their commitment from the very beginning of our journey to today, as we
- Great to see Veerle De Schepper our Head of R&D at Rainbow Crops, sharing how we combine AI, multiplex genome editing, and advanced phenotyping to tackle complex traits and develop the next generation of crops. 🌱 A great opportunity to learn more about our Trait Foundry™ platform and the science behind it! 🎥 Watch the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/eDNbUw-K #RainbowCrops #GeneEditing #PlantBreeding #AgTech
- Can we move from predicting complex crop traits to designing them? That was one of the interesting themes of yesterdays webinar, “Gene Editing in In Vitro and In Vivo Systems: Tools, Delivery, and Applications,” hosted by the Society For In Vitro Biology (SIVB) and CAST (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology). Besides getting an update about Pairwise by Aaron Hummel, I also had the opportunity to learn more about Rainbow Crops, a Belgian spin-off from the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, and its Trait
- From a childhood flower garden to the frontiers of plant science. 🌱 Our Scientific Co-Founder, Prof. Hilde Nelissen, has written for Farming First to mark the International Year of the Woman Farmer. Hilde writes about growing up on a farm, discovering her fascination with plant genetics, and the work that has followed: understanding how crops can better cope with heat and drought, while ensuring scientific advances translate into something genuinely useful for farmers. It’s a personal story, and a reminder of how much women
- Advances in gene editing are accelerating trait development, while evolving regulation is creating greater clarity around how new crops can reach farmers. Both will be firmly on the agenda at the Euroseeds Congress in Valencia, 25–28 October. Our CEO and Co-Founder, Giacomo Bastianelli, will be there to discuss crop genetics, resilience and where plant breeding goes next. Attending? Get in touch to arrange a conversation. #Euroseeds2026 #GeneEditing #CropGenetics
- We’re hiring at Rainbow Crops! We’re looking for a Senior Lab Technician – Plant Biology / Transformation to join our growing R&D team in Ghent, Belgium. 🌱 You'll play a key role in advancing our genome editing and precision breeding platform, working on plant transformation, tissue culture, molecular characterization, and greenhouse activities. We’re looking for someone with 5+ years of hands-on experience, strong technical skills, and a problem-solving mindset who thrives in a dynamic biotech startup environment.
- Drought resilience, heat tolerance and yield stability are not typically controlled by a single gene and they emerge from networks of genes working together. In a piece with Harry Duran from iGrow News, our CEO and Co-Founder Giacomo Bastianelli explains how Rainbow Crops is combining AI, multiplex genome editing, breeding and high-throughput phenotyping to tackle that complexity more systematically. He also discusses our work on maize, sorghum and rice, the role of field validation, and why collaboration with seed and breeding
Something wrong or missing? Send an update. Fixed within 24 hours.