Two teenage founders walked into Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham’s yard with an concept nobody in agriculture appeared to need — an AI mannequin to assist design higher pesticides. By the point they left, that they had a brand new enterprise mannequin, a brand new firm, and finally, Graham’s backing.
Now, that reimagined firm — Bindwell — has raised $6 million in a seed spherical, co-led by Normal Catalyst and A Capital, with a private examine from Graham himself. Fairly than promoting AI instruments to legacy agrochemical giants, the startup is utilizing its personal fashions to design new pesticide molecules in-house and license the IP straight — a shift in technique geared toward modernizing a legacy trade nonetheless dominated by decades-old chemistry.
Pesticide use in agriculture has doubled during the last three a long time, but as much as 40% of worldwide crop manufacturing remains to be misplaced to pests and ailments yearly, per the UN Meals and Agriculture Group. As pests evolve and develop resistance, farmers are pressured to make use of rising quantities of chemical substances simply to take care of the identical yields — a cycle that damages ecosystems and accelerates resistance even additional. Regulatory stress is mounting, however most agrochemical corporations nonetheless depend on tweaking legacy compounds. Bindwell is betting that AI can break the cycle by discovering solely new, extra focused molecules — ones designed from scratch for contemporary challenges.
Based in 2024 by Tyler Rose, 18, and Navvye Anand, 19, Bindwell adapts AI-led drug discovery methods to agriculture, with the aim of rushing up how new pesticide molecules are recognized and examined.
Bindwell started as a analysis challenge in late 2023, when Rose and Anand have been college students on the Wolfram Summer time Analysis Program. They initially centered on a drug discovery AI mannequin referred to as PLAPT, which concerned binding affinity prediction — work that was later cited in a Nature Scientific Reviews paper on most cancers therapeutics. In 2024, they started exploring how the identical strategy may very well be utilized to pesticides.
Each founders had private publicity to the issue. Rose realized in regards to the challenges of pest management from his aunt, who farms in China. Anand’s household owns farmland in Delhi, the place he noticed firsthand how restricted pesticide choices affected crop yields.
“Agriculture has been in our thoughts area,” mentioned Rose in an interview. “That led to the belief that we are able to use the very same expertise that has been profitable in drug discovery. We are able to carry that over to pesticide discovery, as a result of the biochemistry is identical, however pesticides are such an enormous downside, and I really feel prefer it’s not very centered on by most individuals.”
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Rose and Anand entered Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch with plans to construct AI fashions and promote their entry to main agrochemical corporations. However they didn’t discover traction — most trade gamers have been reluctant to undertake AI as a core a part of pesticide discovery. Halfway by way of this system, they have been invited to Paul Graham’s residence, the place they spoke with him for about 45 minutes on the again patio.
After listening to about their challenges, Graham advised a distinct strategy: quite than promoting instruments, they might use their very own fashions to find new pesticide molecules themselves. That dialog marked the start of Bindwell’s present course.
“The founders [of Bindwell] will in all probability do alright,” he later posted on X. “They’re good and have a good suggestion.”
Bindwell has developed its personal AI suite designed to scale back hallucination — a standard challenge the place fashions produce unreliable or unsupported outputs. The software program consists of Foldwell, a construction prediction mannequin, which is a fine-tuned model of DeepMind’s AlphaFold, used to determine goal protein constructions. It additionally consists of PLAPT, an open-source protein–ligand interplay mannequin able to scanning each recognized synthesized compound in underneath six hours, and APPT, a protein–protein interplay mannequin for biopesticide screening, reported to outperform current instruments by 1.7× on the Affinity Benchmark v5.5. Furthermore, the suite incorporates an uncertainty quantification system that flags when outcomes are reliable and when extra knowledge is required.
“Since we’re not promoting AI fashions, we’re not competing with corporations that promote fashions,” Rose informed TechCrunch.
Collectively, Bindwell’s fashions can analyze “billions” of molecules, the startup mentioned, and ship 4 instances quicker efficiency than DeepMind’s AlphaFold 3.
“The best way most pesticides are found proper now is just not target-based,” mentioned Rose. “Entomologists and chemists recommend completely different compounds, then check them on bugs. You usually must synthesize and check 1000’s of chemical substances, which is pricey simply to examine for efficacy. With our AI fashions, you’re capable of simplify the issue right down to a single protein.”
The AI helps determine proteins which are distinctive to a selected pest however absent in people, useful bugs, or aquatic organisms like water fleas.
“As soon as you discover these proteins, you may design one thing that binds to them and stops them from working,” Rose mentioned.
Bindwell is at the moment testing the efficacy of its AI-generated molecules at its lab in San Carlos. Additionally it is working with a third-party accomplice to additional validate the fashions, although Rose declined to share particulars.
Rose mentioned the startup is in early discussions with a number of world agrochemical companies, with its first partnership deal anticipated to shut quickly. “A yr from now, we wish to be coming into into our licensing offers with a few of these corporations,” he mentioned. Bindwell has additionally begun talks with stakeholders in India and China to conduct subject checks.
The startup at the moment has a group of 4, and likewise works with exterior contractors for molecule synthesis.
Bindwell’s seed spherical additionally included participation from SV Angel, alongside Graham. Previous to becoming a member of Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch, the startup raised a pre-seed spherical from Character Capital.
