Pre-seed startup · 2026

phylox.

Discovering novel herbicides superweeds can't resist.

An AI platform that designs new herbicide modes of action for the resistant weeds breaking modern agriculture.

Back the round See how it works
scroll ↓
The problem

Weeds have taken over.

Superweeds are outrunning the chemistry meant to control them. Resistance is spreading across the world's biggest cash crops, and the herbicides farmers depend on are losing the war.

The Growing Menace from Superweeds

Pigweed, ragweed and other monsters have begun to outsmart the advanced technologies that protect the biggest U.S. cash crops.

Industry press

Attack of the Superweeds

Herbicides are losing the war — and agriculture might never be the same again.

Feature report

Herbicide resistance evolution & the fear of superweeds

Resistance keeps evolving — superweeds now shrug off another whole class of herbicides.

Peer-reviewed research

The weeds are winning.

As the climate changes, genetic engineering may be essential for growth — but is it creating a race of superweeds?

Science desk
Why now

Three curves
just crossed.

Protein language models now model plant targets
Billion-scale molecular screening is cheap
The incumbent discovery pipeline has run dry
The time is now
The solution

how it works.

Introducing Phylox — we point AI at a fresh herbicide target and surface molecules superweeds have never seen.

1

target

Point the AI at the GLR3.4 binding pocket — a new, unexploited herbicide target class.

2

screen & rank

Predict and shortlist novel molecules that bind, screening billions of candidates in silico.

3

validate

Confirm the top hits in the lab, then license winning chemistry to major agriculture companies.

GLR3.4 target protein with AI-identified ligand bound in the binding pocket
GLR3.4 target protein · ligand bound in pocket
Size of market

A $40B market,
starved of new chemistry.

Weed control is a ~$40B global market. Roughly $10B of it is failing as weeds outrun existing chemistry — and no new herbicide mode of action has reached the market in 30+ years. Phylox uses AI to discover the next one.

40B
Global herbicide market
10B
Resistance-driven segment (new modes of action)
Who we are

Meet the team.

Nishant Jain

Nishant Jain

CEO

Independent science researcher targeting TRP pain-receptor channels. 1st place, IFT Nutmeg Section & PepsiCo Engineering Awards. 1st at HackPrinceton. Researcher at Brown.

Lula Wang

Lula Wang

COO

3× Regeneron ISEF Grand Award winner. 1st at JSHS '25, National STEM Champion '26, 1st in Applied Technology. Researcher at Yale.

Rithvik Suren

Rithvik Suren

CTO

IEEE-published AI/ML researcher (youngest author). 3M Young Scientist & GENIUS Olympiad 1st-place gold, Science. 3rd at JSHS '25.

The ask
150K @ 5M Cap

A pre-seed round to take Phylox from validated targets to confirmed, licensable hits. Capital goes straight into the science.

🧪 Compound synthesis 🔬 Wet-lab assays 🌱 Field validation
Request the data room hello@phylox.bio