Engineered tuberous carbon sinks

Carbon, rooted.

Groundswell engineers tuberous crops to lock atmospheric carbon into long-lived underground polymers — yielding durable, MRV-grade removal credits and a low-emission biomass for construction.

From harvest to installed material
10–40 t
CO₂e per hectare per year (modeled)
≥ 100 yr
Permanence target (CORC100+)
Off-takes per rotation: credit + biomass
3 yr
From construct to first issued credit
The land we work with
What we do

Tuberize. Lignify. Store, or build.

Two facts the field already accepts: tuberization is a developmental program we can engineer, and lignin is the most recalcitrant carbon pool plants make. Compose them.

01

Tuberize

Edits are confined to the underground storage organ — leaving the rest of the plant, including yield, untouched.

02

Lignify

Inside the tuber, captured carbon is routed into a long-lived, decay-resistant polymer instead of starch.

03

Store, or build

One hectare yields a verified durable carbon removal credit and a low-embodied-carbon biomass for panels, pellets, or bricks.

Built with intention
Approach

Engineering the storage organ to retain carbon.

Every plant fixes carbon. The challenge is retaining it. Our crops route captured carbon into a long-lived polymer that resists decay on a centuries-long timescale — and store it inside a discrete, harvestable organ.

From air to durable storage
01 Atmospheric CO₂ captured by photosynthesis
02 Carbon directed underground to the storage organ
03 Converted into a decay-resistant polymer
04 Locked in place — ≥ 100 yr permanence
01
Capture
Photosynthesis pulls atmospheric CO₂ into the plant.
02
Allocate
Carbon is routed to the underground storage organ.
03
Convert
Inside the tuber, that carbon is built into a stable polymer.
04
Lock
Carbon is held in a recalcitrant material — not at risk in the soil microbiome.
From harvest to material
Outputs

Two off-takes per hectare, in one rotation.

A durable carbon removal credit, and a low-embodied-carbon biomass for construction. Two revenue streams, no additional land.

A — Durable carbon removal

Verifiable removal credits.

The format Frontier ($1B+ AMC), Microsoft (>100 Mt contracted), Google, JPMorgan, and Shopify SCF are paying $200–$500 per tonne to secure — under multi-year offtake.

$6,250/ ha / yr at $250/t × 25 t (modeled)
  • VerificationDirect measurement, third-party
  • MethodologyMajor-registry aligned (CORC100+ class)
  • Buyer categoryFrontier, Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan
B — Low-emission biomass

Building material from the harvest.

After credit issuance, the harvest is milled into low-embodied-carbon material that substitutes for cement, gypsum, OSB, and petroleum binders.

2× marginstacks on the storage credit
  • Bio-fiber panelvs. OSB / gypsum
  • Lignin pelletvs. petroleum binder
  • Densified brickvs. concrete masonry
A new crop, a new outcome
Roadmap

Three years to first product.

Each step answers one biological or commercial question; only then do we scale.

Yr 0 — 90 days

Build + raise.

Close pre-seed. Initiate non-dilutive applications (ARPA-E, DOE BER, SBIR).

Yr 1

First lab proof.

Demonstrate carbon-locking in the storage organ in a primary tuberous crop.

Yr 2

Field + second crop.

Initiate the regulatory pathway and limited field testing. Extend to a second tuberous crop. MRV protocol drafted.

Yr 3

First product.

First verified durable CDR credit issued. First biomass offtake. Series A.

Why now

The tools, the buyers, and the regulation have all converged.

~$0.07
Per bp · gene synthesis
Plant engineering inputs are now orders of magnitude cheaper than a decade ago — what used to be a multi-year program is a routine line item.
>100 Mt
Durable CDR contracted
Frontier, Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan and Shopify pay $200–500/t for verified, durable removals.
SECURE
USDA-APHIS pathway
Recent rulemaking established a streamlined regulatory pathway suited to our class of crop edits.
Plant biology, hands-on
Team

Founded by plant developmental biologists.

The science we run is the science we trained on. Groundswell is a genetic engineering of the storage organ company — durable carbon credits and a low-emission building biomass from a single rotation.

Kate Harline
Co-founder · CEO

Plant developmental biologist. Entrepreneur and VC technologist. Leads strategy, capital formation, partnerships, and commercial development.

Jack Satterlee
Co-founder · CSO

Plant developmental biologist. Lab co-founder; leads the science program — from line design through phenotyping.

Get in touch

Carbon, rooted.

If you build durable carbon markets, run a plant biotech lab, write checks for climate science, or operate a non-dilutive program for agricultural biotech — we want to hear from you.

For investors / partners
Pre-seed open.
Raising $2.5M pre-seed alongside $1.5M non-dilutive (ARPA-E, DOE BER, SBIR). 3-year path to first issued CDR credit and first biomass offtake. SAFE, $15M post-money cap. Lead position open.

For scientists / collaborators
Active conversations on tuber-specific promoters, lignin pathway titration, and MRV protocol design. Sponsored research and visiting-scientist arrangements available.

Press / general
kate@groundswell.bio · groundswell.bio