Dr. Padraic Flood
CEO. Plant phenomics and genomics expert, and a world authority on the aardaker.
Aardaia
Turning wild plants into crops of the future
our approach
New crops from the plant world's wild potential.
Where others re-engineer the same few crops, Aardaia invents new ones from first principles, drawing on 400 million years of evolution to find plants that are already hardwired to succeed.
There are around 30,000 edible plant species on earth, yet over half of humanity's calories come from just three, and ninety-five percent come from only thirty.
Nearly all crop R&D focuses on that same small handful of species, adding new traits one at a time. We take the opposite approach: we search for species that have already evolved the traits we need.
We’re not waiting for the future to arrive. When we find a wild species with extraordinary potential, we collect seeds from across its native range, capturing an enormous wealth of genetic diversity. Then we put a suite of powerful techniques to work, rapidly moving the species from its wild state to a domesticated crop.
Our first crop, the aardaker, is actively growing in our fields, our domestication work is well underway, and it’s already being served at top restaurants. The next chapter of what we eat has already begun.
400,000Plant species on earth
30,000Edible plant species3
The green dot marks the three crops supplying over half of humanity's calories.
Introducing Aardaker
A new kind of protein crop.
Protein is the world's most expensive macronutrient to produce because it depends on nitrogen. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is energy-intensive to manufacture, volatile in price, and environmentally damaging to apply.
Legume crops solve this problem by fixing nitrogen from the air, making them naturally rich in protein. But most produce far less biomass per hectare than the world's highest-yielding crops.
Tuber crops like potato and cassava are among agriculture's highest-yielding crops, but they contain relatively little protein.
Aardaker combines both systems: the yield potential of a tuber with the nitrogen biology of a legume.
Aardaker composition
A new source of plant protein.
Early compositional work suggests aardaker can deliver meaningful protein while retaining the handling, storage, and processing characteristics expected of a conventional root crop.
per 100 g fresh tubers
- Protein
- ~10 g
- Starch
- ~20 g
- Fibre
- ~10 g
- Sugars
- ~5 g
- Total dry matter
- ~45 g
Values are approximate.
Old crop, new role
A forgotten food with modern potential.
Aardaker has a long history as a food crop and was prized for its sweet chestnut flavour. Like many traditional crops, it gradually disappeared as agriculture became increasingly focused on a small number of globally dominant species.
We are not simply reviving a forgotten food. We are modernizing a remarkable plant for today's agricultural systems: combining reliable field performance with a new source of sustainable plant protein.
Built with growers
Developed with farmers from day one.
Aardaker has been developed alongside farmers from the very beginning. Every generation is tested under real field conditions, in real rotations, and with the practical constraints of commercial agriculture.
Our goal is simple: create a crop that fits the equipment, storage, and handling systems farmers already use while bringing entirely new value to those systems.
Founding team
Field-first, science-first, built to scale.
Mike Henske
COO. Agritech and seed-company operator focused on commercial strategy and scaling.
Beyond the founders, Aardaia has built a talent-dense team with expertise spanning plant breeding, agronomy, crop physiology, phytopathology, computational biology and AI. This is the engine behind everything Aardaia is building, and the company is still hiring.
12Team members10Nationalities1/2Hold doctorates
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Partner with us
Help bring aardaker to the world.
We're looking for partners to bring aardaker into our fields and onto our plates. Whether you're a farmer, processor, ingredient company, chef, retailer, or have another creative idea, we'd love to hear from you.