After officially launching Rainbow Crops in May this year, CEO & Co-Founder Giacomo Bastianelli shares the company's journey since exhibiting at World Agri-Tech in London. 

Q: How is your technology helping solve agricultural challenges? 

A: Rainbow Crops has developed Trait Foundry™, an integrated platform that combines multiplex genome editing, AI, precision breeding, and automated phenotyping. This platform enables us to generate rationally designed genetic diversity, which we screen using high-throughput, automated phenotyping to identify and enhance multiple complex traits in parallel—such as climate resilience, input efficiency, and yield. These traits are critical for the future of agriculture and have been particularly challenging to improve through conventional breeding. The result is enhanced crop genetics tailored for the demands of sustainable, high-performance farming.

Q: What is your relationship with farmers, and how are you engaging with them?

A: Rainbow Crops works primarily through partnerships with seed and breeding companies who are deeply embedded in farming networks. These partners act as a bridge to farmers, ensuring our enhanced genetics are deployed through varieties that meet real-world agronomic needs. While we don't sell directly to farmers, we engage indirectly by designing traits with practical benefits—like reduced input dependency or better resilience under stress—based on market and grower insights. As we move toward field trials, farmer feedback becomes increasingly central in validating performance and guiding development.

Q: What are Rainbow Crops' key milestones since featuring at World Agri-Tech?

A: Since World Agri-Tech, we’ve officially launched Rainbow Crops (early May 2025) as a spin-off from VIB and secured initial funding from a strong syndicate of early-stage investors. We’ve expanded our R&D activities at our headquarters in Ghent and are actively advancing partnership discussions with seed companies to co-develop enhanced crop varieties. These milestones mark significant progress in translating foundational research into a scalable platform for engineering complex agronomic traits that address the needs of modern agriculture.

Q: What is your strategy for tackling the VC downturn/the current economic climate? What actions are you taking?

A: Rainbow Crops was built with capital efficiency at its core, giving us strong fundamentals in today’s cautious investment climate. We are prioritizing strategic partnerships that offer both validation and revenue potential, while carefully timing our equity round around concrete technical and commercial milestones to ensure strong investor alignment. Our collaborative model—leveraging VIB’s world-class infrastructure—allows us to scale innovation without heavy capital expenditure. This approach enables us to remain agile, focused, and resilient as we grow in a challenging economic environment.

Q: Do you have any advice for start-ups who are fundraising in today’s challenging economic climate?

A: Focus on solving real problems with differentiated technology and a clear path to market. Investors are still writing checks, but they're prioritizing substance over hype. Be transparent, capital-efficient, and milestone-driven. Align your fundraising strategy with tangible proof points and potential revenue signals. Also, don’t underestimate the value of strategic partnerships—they can de-risk your story and open doors. Stay mission-driven: in tough markets, conviction and clarity of purpose are as important as the numbers.

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