Trace Genomics
23andMe for soil that analyzes the soil microbiome and prescribes treatments.
Summary
Trace Genomics is building 23andMe me for soil. Trace has developed a soil testing platform that uses artificial intelligence to identify microbes and genetic mutations that cause or protect from disease. Trace enables data-driven insights into soil health and methods to increase crop quality, including yield and shelf life. The company was founded by two Stanford PhDs working under Nobel Prize-winning biologist Andrew Fire. Diane Wu is a former data scientist at Palantir and Poornima Parameswaran did her postdoc at Berkeley studying microbial pathogens and has over a dozen publications.
Why We Invested
- Highly intelligent and best in class technical founders.
- Both are strong communicators who have demonstrated an excellent ability to marshal resources.
- Category defining technology that can create new markets with limited competition.
- Accelerating data and analytics moat.
- Bold vision to build a soil genomics platform for product development.
- Sound business model to subsidize the development of the product.
Contact Trace Genomics
Team
Diane Wu
CEO/Cofounder
Diane co-founded Trace Genomics with the vision of connecting great science to thehardworking taxpayers who fund it, and making genomic testing accessible. She was formerly asenior data scientist at MetaMind and a machine learning engineer at Palantir Technologies,and holds a PhD in Genetics from Stanford and a BSc in Computer Science from Simon FrazerUniversity.
Poornima Parameswaran
President/Cofounder
Poornima co-founded Trace Genomics and has over 13 years of experience in using genomicsto track infectious diseases. She holds a PhD in Microbiology from Stanford, did a 4-yearpost-doc at Berkeley, and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biologyfrom UT Austin.