Problem

Crop pests and pathogens destroy enormous economic value: Ohmic Biosciences cites more than $200 billion in annual global crop-disease losses, with soybean cyst nematode (SCN) alone causing more than $1.5 billion in yearly U.S. yield loss. The problem is becoming harder as climate change and trade globalization accelerate disease pressure, while agrochemicals are slow and expensive to commercialize, can lose effectiveness as pathogens evolve resistance, and face increasingly difficult approval pathways.

The company’s initial “killer” use case is a soybean that resists SCN, a root parasite that often produces few visible symptoms but quietly reduces yield. The economic pain is therefore concentrated in lost harvests and recurring crop-protection inputs, with farmers needing durable resistance rather than another treatment that pathogens can eventually overcome.

Product / Service

Ohmic Biosciences combines protein engineering and synthetic biology to genetically engineer plants for disease resistance. Its platform is intended to design resistance genes directly, rather than relying only on traits that happen to exist in nature, with the goal of producing crop defenses that remain robust as pathogens evolve. The company describes its first product as an SCN-resistant soybean.

The public materials point to a trait-and-seed delivery model: the engineered resistance is built into the plant’s genetics and is expected to reach farmers through genetically modified seed, used with ordinary planting and crop-management practices. The benefit is protection against disease without requiring a separate application at the point of use, potentially reducing yield losses, agrochemical dependence, and farm input costs. A detailed commercial licensing or seed-partnership model has not been publicly disclosed.

Market

Ohmic competes in agricultural biotechnology, specifically synthetic biology, crop genetic engineering, and durable disease-resistance traits. Its direct competitive set includes incumbent and regional soybean seed companies that already sell SCN-resistant varieties, while agrochemicals represent the incumbent alternative for controlling crop disease. The opportunity is differentiated by the company’s focus on designing new resistance genes intended to withstand pathogen evolution, rather than relying solely on conventional breeding or existing chemistry.

The company appears early-stage and pre-commercial rather than a proven revenue business. YC lists it as an active Summer 2023 company, and PitchBook reports two employees, approximately $500,000 raised, and investment from Y Combinator and Climate Capital; its current-revenue field is blank. Publicly available field-trial, customer, and commercialization evidence remains limited, with field-trial data described as still emerging, so the clearest traction is its funded platform, initial SCN program, and accelerator-backed development rather than reported sales.