Giving Compass' Take:

• A new generation of women-led startups including Trace Genomics is providing novel solutions to agriculture’s problems with tech innovation.

• How can we help fund more female farmers in the U.S.? Which sustainable agriculture practices have the greatest potential to help our food ecosystem and the environment?

• Here’s more on why we need gender equity in agriculture science.

Trace Genomics produces soil microbiome kits, and provides data analysis with growers as their target customers. There are 25 full-time staff including Parameswaran and her partner and co-founder Diane Wu. The company maintains a sales office in Salinas.

Salinas, Calif.—In 2016 Poornima Parameswaran and Diane Wu the founders of Trace Genomics experienced their first taste of success. The company won a spot in the THRIVE Accelerator a highly competitive agtech incubator based out of Silicon Valley.

Trace, launched officially in 2015, had beat nine other startups in THRIVE and was recognized as the most promising agtech startup. There is a picture of Wu and Parameswaran receiving accolades from media mogul Steve Forbes at the 2016 Forbes AgTech Summit hosted and held in Salinas.

The paradox in this is that neither agriculture or technology runs in Parameswaran’s family. She considers herself a pioneer—the first in her family to venture into tech startups, and the first to study in the United States.

Read the full article on Trace Genomics by Amy Wu at Food Tank.