About Benson Hill
No other seed innovation company has the focus on quality traits, its own advantaged proprietary genetics, an AI-driven technology platform, a speed breeding facility, and the ability to focus on creating impact across the feed, food, and fuel markets.
Since 2012, Benson Hill has dared to imagine a Made from Better™ soybean that would benefit everyone in the agribusiness value chain. The soybean is legitimately power-packed, and it holds immense potential to nourish and energize our planet both today and tomorrow. Unfortunately, the soy commodity system has incentivized quantity over quality for decades, leaving us with more calories but less nutrition. With a sophisticated and highly advanced technology core, Benson Hill’s premise is simple: better feed, food, and fuel start with better seeds.
With nature as a partner, our sole focus on optimizing soy quality traits and nutrient density has led to pioneering seed innovations delivered through three distinct paths:
Driving seed advancement through technology
Using proprietary data and insights to drive predictions, Benson Hill launched our CropOS® technology platform in 2016 to build a foundation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Genomic sequencing technology made the integration and digitization of proprietary germplasm possible, leading us to develop a plant breeding platform that encompasses digital twin simulations and in-silico breeding predictions.
Leveraging world-leading proprietary germplasm
In pursuit of a rich germplasm base and robust field data to supercharge our predictive breeding efforts, Benson Hill placed a big bet and acquired Schillinger Genetics’ extensive eMERGE® germplasm database in 2019. We now hold insights and data points on more than two decades of proprietary, non-GMO soybeans with superior protein content, quality oil, and low anti-nutrient attributes—all with competitive yields.
Delivering more accurate results, faster
With the strategic data layers mapped on top of our soy genetics, we set out to push the limits of biology. In 2021, Benson Hill opened the Crop Accelerator, an indoor speed breeding and rapid prototyping facility that manifests the CropOS breeding roadmaps into living plants. We designed the best, most carefully controlled environment to deliver the seed innovations of the future.
Using this technology core, we laid out a set of innovation platforms designed to drive growth across the feed, food, and fuel markets. The Ultra-High Protein (UHP) soybean is Benson Hill’s foundational technology, to which we can add other quality traits and next-generation improvements. We’ve already seen the potential of UHP in human food categories, and today, we’re accelerating into upstream uses. For instance, our Ultra-High Protein, Low Oligosaccharide (UHP-LO) soybean offers digestibility and nutrition benefits ideally suited for animal feed.
With this approach, Benson Hill empowers the end user with both choice and a voice. We have validated that by focusing on the end user’s needs first, we can create a compelling value to incentivize all players, from the seed company to the farmer to the customer. Seed decisions can now be driven not simply by what input traits a farmer prefers, but by what output traits the end user needs.
There’s much more to come.
No other seed innovation company has the focus on quality traits, its own advantaged proprietary genetics, an AI-driven technology platform, a speed breeding facility, and the ability to focus on creating impact across the feed, food, and fuel markets. And within our approach, we’re pushing beyond food security and innovating for nutrition security. Developing soybean varieties with higher protein content leads to shared opportunities with our strategic partners: the opportunity to eliminate processing steps, the opportunity to use fewer natural resources, and the opportunity to realize more protein out of every acre.
With the power of technology and nature as a partner, Benson Hill is strategically positioned to meet the growing demand for more nutritious, sustainable, and energy-dense feed, food, and fuel.
