Forests burn. Soil organic matter respires in a season. Direct air capture costs $400–$1,000 / t. The market wants durable, verifiable, scalable removals — and almost nothing on the menu is all three.
Compose them. Engineer the storage organ to lay down the durable polymer, on existing farmland, in a single rotation.
A tuber-specific promoter (B33 patatin, sporamin) confines our edits to the tuber. Photosynthesis, root vigor, and yield genes are untouched.
A master TF (MYB46 or VND7) activates the lignin biosynthesis cascade. AGPase RNAi reduces starch flux, redirecting carbon into the phenylpropanoid pathway.
Lignin-rich tubers stay intact in soil for centuries. Harvest yields a verified CDR credit and a fiber-rich biomass for panels, pellets, or bricks.
Add to that single-cell atlases of tuber development, mature CRISPR multiplexing in crop systems, and sustained policy push toward agricultural CDR — and you get the first reasonable window for a plant biotech company to sell durable, MRV-grade removal credits at unit cost.
| Buyer | Price | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| Frontier (Stripe + co.) | $200–500 / t | $1B+ AMC, 2022–2030 |
| Microsoft | $200–500 / t | >100 Mt contracted |
| Google, JPMorgan, Shopify | $150–400 / t | Multi-Mt commitments |
Modeled per-ha: 10–40 t CO₂e / yr at maturity. At $250/t × 25 t/ha = $6,250 / ha / yr from CDR alone.
| Output | Buyer category | Substitution |
|---|---|---|
| Bio-fiber panel | Mass timber, drywall | Gypsum, OSB |
| Lignin pellet | Biorefinery, asphalt | Petroleum binder |
| Densified brick | Insulation, infill | Concrete masonry |
The brick economy: embodied-carbon avoidance stacks on top of the storage credit; second margin at no additional land.
| Host | Why | Gen. | Mha | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solanum tuberosum POTATO |
Tuber-native; B33/patatin promoters validated; Agrobacterium routine; microtubers at 8 wk. | ~12 wk | ~17 | PROTOTYPE |
| Beta vulgaris SUGAR BEET |
0.5–1 kg taproot/plant; 60–80 t/ha yield; temperate; well-characterized transformation. | ~22 wk | ~4.5 | TEMPERATE |
| Manihot esculenta CASSAVA |
1.5–3 kg roots/plant; 30–80 t/ha optimal; vegetatively propagated (no pollen flow). | 9–12 mo | ~28 | TROPICAL |
| Ipomoea batatas SWEET POTATO |
Hexaploid; storage parenchyma lignifiable; sporamin promoter mature. | 16–20 wk | ~7 | OPTION |
Decision rule: converge on the host where (lignin yield × addressable ha × regulatory friction⁻¹) is highest. The cassette ports across hosts — the IP is the cassette, not the cultivar.
| Player | Approach | Limit | Our wedge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living Carbon | Engineered poplar; aboveground biomass. | Trees burn / decay; forest-management dependent. | Below-ground, recalcitrant storage organ. |
| Charm Industrial | Pyrolysis → bio-oil → well injection. | Thermal step + injection infrastructure. | No combustion or injection — biology locks it. |
| Graphyte | Compressed biomass casts buried in dry mines. | Limited burial sites; logistics-heavy. | Storage co-located with production. |
| Running Tide | Kelp + biomass sinking in deep ocean. | MRV contested; permanence variable. | Terrestrial, sampleable (root core, TGA). |
| Salk HPI | Deep-rooted suberin-rich crops via breeding. | Long timelines; crossing-based. | Engineering > breeding for speed. |
| Biochar | Pyrolyze biomass → stable C amendment. | Energy-intensive thermal step; lower premium. | Polymer durability designed in; no pyrolysis. |
Compass: not a tree company, not a thermal company, not a marine company. We are a genetic engineering of the storage organ company. Closest analog: Living Carbon — but our storage is below ground, in a polymer that doesn't burn or decay on a forestry timescale.
| Risk | Failure mode | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Yield drag | Lignin overproduction stunts the tuber. | Tuber-specific promoter; inducible expression late in tuberization; titrate via TF dose. |
| Permanence / MRV | Carbon decays faster than modeled; credits invalidated. | Direct measurement (TGA, py-GC/MS, δ¹³C); pre-aligned with Puro.earth or Isometric. |
| Regulatory | USDA-APHIS delays; EU GMO posture limits export. | SECURE-rule Regulatory Status Review eligibility; sequence US first; non-food cultivars where viable. |
| Gene flow | Engineered traits escape to wild relatives. | Vegetatively propagated hosts (no pollen flow); sterile lines for sugar beet; tuber-specific expression. |
| IP / FTO | Existing patents block scale. | FTO mapping in Q1; license what we can; design-around with orthologous promoters. |
| Market | Durable CDR price collapses; offtakers default. | Dual revenue (credit + biomass); long-dated offtake; modular cultivar program by region. |
Synthesize first tuber-specific MYB46 cassette. Close pre-seed. File ARPA-E, DOE BER, SBIR I. Lock lab partner.
Transform potato; phenotype 50+ T₀ events; TGA / py-GC/MS validation; ≥ 2× wild-type lignin target.
USDA-APHIS RSR + limited field test. Replicate cassette in Beta vulgaris. MRV protocol drafted with Puro.earth or Isometric.
First verified, durable CDR credit issued (CORC100+). First biomass offtake (mass timber or bio-pellet). Series A.
First-principles ladder: each year answers one question — does the cassette work in planta (Y1), does it work in the field (Y2), will a registry recognize it as durable (Y3) — and unlocks the next round of capital plus the next regulatory step.
Plant developmental biologist. Entrepreneur and VC technologist. Leads strategy, capital, partnerships, and commercial.
Plant developmental biologist. Lab co-founder; runs the science — construct design, transformation, and line characterization.
Senior PI in phenylpropanoid biochemistry; advisory equity grant.
Ex-Verra / Puro.earth / Isometric.
Frontier (Stripe + co.), Microsoft CIF, Google CDR, JPMorgan, Shopify SCF.
Holcim, Lafarge, Plantd, Mycoworks, Mass Timber networks.
Salk HPI, Donald Danforth, Wageningen, INRAE, IRRI, JIC.
ARPA-E SCALEUP / GROW, DOE BER, USDA-NIFA SBIR, Activate, Breakthrough Energy.
Plus $1.5M non-dilutive (ARPA-E, DOE BER, SBIR). Pulls Groundswell to Year-1 validation and a Year-3 first issued credit + first biomass offtake.