TraitSeq
Company overview
TraitSeq is a spin-out from the Earlham Institute, founded in 2023, using AI and multi-omics bioinformatics to tackle core agricultural challenges. TraitSeq uncovers predictive biomarkers, that enable agritech companies forecast performance earlier in development – reducing time to market and improving success rates.
Its mission is to empower agritech companies with actionable insights that accelerate the development of climate resilient crops and sustainable agricultural products that thrive in future environments.
Built on IP licensed from the Earlham Institute, originating from Joshua Colmer’s PhD research, TraitSeq’s technology has since been extensively developed and expanded. Through the ICURe programme, the team engaged with industry and validated the technology’s high potential in agritech. Based on strong market interest, the team was recommended to commercialise the innovation by creating a spin-out company.
TraitSeq received pre-seed funding from Anglia Innovation Partnership to refine its value proposition and validate early commercial demand. The company has since grown rapidly, securing further grant support, raising private funding and building commercial traction with global agritech partners.
The challenge
The agricultural sector is under increasing pressure to deliver new crop inputs that improve traits like disease resistance, nutrient uptake, and stress tolerance, while also performing reliably under real field conditions. However, many promising candidates fail during the transition from controlled environments to the real world. This inconsistency is driven by environmental variation and genetic differences across regions, an issue that is being amplified by climate change.
The consequences are significant. Failed candidates represent years of R&D investment lost, delayed product launches, and missed revenue. For the broader sector, it means slower progress toward the climate-resilient agriculture the world urgently needs.
Without molecular insights, screening programmes often identify promising leads but struggle to explain why they perform well, which environments they are best suited to, or how to position them for maximum impact. Agritech companies supplying farmers therefore need better tools to understand, predict and optimise field performance. These insights are critical for supporting regulatory approval, improving product adoption, and ensuring consistent outcomes for growers.
The proposition
TraitSeq combines deep expertise in multi-omics analysis, plant biology, and AI to give agritech companies a fundamentally clearer picture of how their products work and where they will work best. Their platform enables partners to uncover the biological effects of their inputs, understand how those effects vary across plant genetics and environments, and use that understanding to make better development and positioning decisions – before committing to costly late-stage trials.
Central to TraitSeq’s approach is its ability to model the three-way interaction between inputs, plant genetics, and environment. By analysing how gene expression responds to a product across different genetic backgrounds and field conditions, TraitSeq reveals which combinations drive strong performance, and which don’t. This allows companies to tailor product application to the environments where performance is expected to be highest, and to identify predictive biomarkers that support earlier go/no-go decisions.
With a clearer understanding of mode of action and biological effect, companies can strengthen their product positioning, build grower confidence, and accelerate R&D timelines – bringing more effective solutions to market faster and with greater certainty.
What next?
TraitSeq is now expanding its proprietary platform to deliver scalable value directly to customers. To date, the company has validated its approach through successful customer-led projects with commercial partners, including a landmark partnership with Syngenta, demonstrating clear demand for deeper biological insight into product performance, mode of action, and environment-specific application.
Building on this traction, TraitSeq is evolving from primarily bespoke project delivery to a platform-led service, enabling customers to access repeatable workflows, faster turnaround, and consistent outputs across programmes and environments. This shift positions the company for scalable, recurring revenue as adoption grows.
This next phase will accelerate growth by deepening existing commercial partnerships and supporting a broader range of agritech companies with a scalable, high-impact platform for product development and positioning.
Timeline
2023
- Joshua Colmer, a PhD student at the Earlham Institute, enrolled on the ICURe (Innovation and Commercialisation of Research) programme supported by Prof Anthony Hall, Dr Felicity Knowles & John Bloomer
2024
- TraitSeq is cofounded by Dr Joshua Colmer, John Bloomer, Dr Felicity Knowles & Prof Anthony Hall
- TraitSeq secures Innovate UK follow on funding
- TraitSeq are winners of the Innovation Hothouse competition
2025
- TraitSeq announced a pioneering new partnership with Syngenta, a world leader in developing the next generation of biological products for agricultural use. The partnership will utilise TraitSeq’s pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) in the development of innovative, high-performance biostimulants.
- TraitSeq’s impact is recognised by the BBSRC in their 30th anniversary showcase
- TraitSeq is generating commercial revenue & successfully delivering on commercial partnerships
- Dr Joshua Colmer (CEO) & Dr Felicity Knowles (COO) presented how TraitSeq’s AI platform supports partners to deliver next generation agricultural solutions at the NRP Agri-Tech showcase
- Prof Anthony Hall presented an overview of TraitSeq’s achievements and next steps at the Norwich Research Park Enterprise Tuesday