InnerPlant Named to Inc.’s 2025 Best in Business List
The seed technology that created the world’s first real-time detection of crop fungal infection honored among most innovative companies
DAVIS, Calif. (December 2, 2025) – InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, has been named to the Inc. 2025 Best in Business list in the Best in Innovation, Small and Mighty (10–49 Employees) category. Inc.’s annual Best in Business Awards celebrates the exceptional achievements and contributions of companies that have made a profound impact on their industries
2025 has been a milestone year for InnerPlant, highlighted by the world’s first real-time detection of a fungal infection in a commercial soybean field through the company’s CropVoice™ disease alert network and InnerSoy™ sensors, which currently covers 50,000 acres across the Midwest and is on track to scale tenfold in 2026.
The recognition honors companies that, through exceptional execution, have achieved significant milestones and core business wins, like customer expansion, key product launches, increased market share, and industry-defining accomplishments. Companies from a wide range of industries – such as technology, health care, finance, and retail – have been recognized for their success and their positive influence on the business world.
The full list can be found on Inc.com and in the upcoming winter print edition of Inc. magazine.
“This acknowledgment affirms the work our team and our partners have done to bring a completely new layer of intelligence to agriculture,” said Shely Aronov, CEO and co-founder of InnerPlant. “CropVoice proves what becomes possible when we listen to the plants themselves. Detecting infection early enough for farmers to take action is a turning point for crop protection, and the response from growers and retailers shows how quickly this technology can scale.”
Aronov herself has been named as a 2025 High-Impact Woman in U.S. Seed by SeedWorld and included among Inc.'s 2025 Female Founders 500 list, and InnerPlant was recognized by Bloomberg as a BloombergNEF (BNEF) Pioneer earlier this year.
Inc.’s Best in Business Awards are open to companies of all sizes and types, in all industries and locations. Public, private, nonprofit, subsidiary, U.S.-based, and international companies are all encouraged to apply. Inc. editors and reporters hand-review every application and select Best in Business honorees that, in each of the award categories, have had an outstanding influence on their communities, their industries, the environment, or society as a whole.
“Each Best in Business honoree achieved a breakthrough moment this year. Some unveiled groundbreaking innovations while others launched savvy marketing campaigns or strategically implemented AI in their companies,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “No matter what their business win looked like, their projects and initiatives had a sizable impact on their company and even on their industry at large, making them worthy of this honor.”
For more information or to see the complete list, please visit inc.com/best-in-business.
About InnerPlantInnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable from as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
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Gary Schaefer on CropVoice™: When Soybeans Start Talking to Farmers
Read the full article from iGrow News here:
Key Takeaways
- Gary Schaefer, Chief Commercial Officer at InnerPlant, explains how CropVoice™ and InnerSoy™ sensors detect fungal infections in real time through plant-generated optical signals.
- The system’s multi-layer validation process—combining field imaging, lab data, and weather analytics—ensures reliability before farmers receive alerts.
- InnerPlant is scaling rapidly, expanding from 50,000 acres in 2025 to more than 500,000 in 2026 through partnerships with CropLife 100 retailers.
- CropVoice enables precision fungicide application, improving ROI and reducing unnecessary input costs.
- Schaefer envisions a future where plants communicate stress directly, ushering in a proactive, data-driven approach to crop management.
Gary Schaefer on the Science Behind CropVoice™
“CropVoice is powered by InnerSoy sensors—genetically engineered soybeans that emit an optical signal when infected by fungal pathogens, like white mold or frogeye leaf spot,” said Gary Schaefer. “We know which genes plants activate under stress, so we insert DNA that tells the plant to produce a fluorescent protein when it starts fighting a fungal infection.”
InnerPlant Makes World’s First Real-Time Detection of Fungal Infection in Soybeans, Unlocking Early Action to Save Yields
CropVoice™ commercial deployment scaling to over half a million acres in 2026 to take the guesswork out of soybean fungal decisions for farmers across the Midwest
DAVIS, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2025) - InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, today announced the world’s first real-time detection of an early fungal infection in soybeans through its CropVoice™ disease alert network currently deployed across Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.
CropVoice sensors were triggered by a fungal infection in Yankton County, S.D., and northern Cedar County, Neb., and sent out the first-ever disease alert to farmers, indicating that the field was infected. The alert provided affected farmers with confirmation of an infection weeks before symptoms were visible in the field, giving them ample time to take action to protect their yields.
“I knew I was going to spray for white mold, but I wasn’t sure about when,” recalled Dylan Tacke, a Nebraska Agronomy Sales Representative who received one of the historic alerts. “When I got the alert, I knew that it was time, and it was good to have confirmation before putting money down in the field.”
InnerPlant’s network covers 50,000 acres across the Midwest in 2025 and is scaling to over half a million acres in 2026 through resale agreements with key “CropLife 100” agricultural retailers.
“This detection is the first time in the 10,000-year history of agriculture that an infection was detected in real-time and farmers notified of the threat,” pointed out Shely Aronov, CEO and co-founder of InnerPlant. “The value of data that confirms an infection weeks before symptoms are visible in the field fundamentally changes how farmers manage disease and is key to driving the commercial demand we’re seeing to expand the reach of the CropVoice network.”
CropVoice uses InnerSoy™ sensors - soybeans genetically engineered to emit an optical signal when infected - to take the guesswork out of farmers’ disease management decisions by sending real-time alerts via text when an active infection is detected near their fields.
The network is backed by a local field team with over 60 years of combined agronomy experience and eight Ph.D.s spanning functional genomics to infrastructure systems engineering. Once the plants in the network signal, that information is amplified with laboratory analysis, boots-on-the-ground scouting, local agronomic expertise, weather data, and advanced modeling to alert of fungal disease in the network.
“Farming involves a great deal of risk - from weather to insects to disease - and often we lack real-time data to make well-informed decisions," said Brandon Hunnicutt, a large Nebraska farmer. “CropVoice takes the guesswork out of soybean fungicide decisions by giving a warning of infection early enough to take action and protect yields.”
Farmers can subscribe to the CropVoice network through select local agricultural retailers.
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable from as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
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Seed World Names Shely Aronov to 30 High-Impact Women in Ag List
Read the full article here:
Shely is a three-time founder, one of the few female founders/CEOs in agriculture, and she recently was recognized as one of Inc.’s 2025 Female Founders 500. Her non-linear path includes time as a Commander in the Israel Defense Forces, leading a $320M World Bank-funded project to build a wastewater system in Colombia, and most recently, founding InnerPlant in 2018.
Core attributes: Bold, Authentic
Shely says: “I lead InnerPlant to harness innovation that creates value for farmers, boosts yields, and drives lasting impact for agriculture and the farming industry.”
Croptastic Named to Top 100 Ag Podcasts List
InnerPlant’s Croptastic podcast has been named one of the Top 100 Agriculture Podcasts and Top 70 Agriculture Technology Podcasts on Million Podcasts. We’re thrilled to receive this recognition and host so many bright-minded folks over the years!
Be sure to check out all of our Croptastic episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
InnerPlant Named a 2025 BloombergNEF Pioneer for Climate Innovation in Agriculture
DAVIS, Calif. (April 21, 2024) — InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, today announced it was named a 2025 BloombergNEF (BNEF) Pioneer for innovation in agriculture. Each year, the BNEF Pioneers award recognizes global innovators whose solutions have the potential to accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy. A winner in the “Boosting climate adaptation capabilities” category, InnerPlant is recognized as a breakthrough technology leader helping shape how the agriculture sector responds to growing climate challenges.
“Future-proofing our agriculture system requires optimizing every aspect of how we farm, and plant-level data is key to unlocking that potential,” said Shely Aronov, CEO and Co-founder of InnerPlant. “InnerPlant’s technology enables plants to communicate their needs, providing farmers with actionable data about their crops. At scale, it gives every farmer the ability to take early action to protect yields, dramatically reduce chemical use, and improve the resilience of their farms.”
Agriculture has long been void of actionable data, leaving farmers to make critical decisions with incomplete information. By tapping into plants' immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals at the earliest onset of stress from pathogens, insects, nitrogen deficiency, or other stressors. Uniquely tied to plants' physiological responses, these signals are detectable from as far away as space and appear before physical symptoms are visible in the field—enabling earlier, more precise interventions that improve yields while reducing chemical use and overall farm emissions.
This recognition from BloombergNEF comes on the heels of the commercial launch of InnerPlant’s first product, CropVoice™—a novel crop communication tool. CropVoice alerts farmers to fungal infections before symptoms are visible in the field, addressing a problem that costs U.S. soybean growers an estimated $3.2 billion annually. InnerPlant is scaling its CropVoice network with enrolled soybean acres covering three states in the Midwest.
Now in its second decade, the BloombergNEF Pioneers program evaluates winners based on their innovation, climate impact potential, and likelihood of widespread adoption. The BNEF analyst team further assesses candidates against three criteria: the potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions and the planet, the level of technological innovation and originality, and the likelihood of adoption and potential scalability.
See the full list of BloombergNEF Pioneers here: https://about.bnef.com/bnefpioneers/
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology to allow crops to communicate. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants' immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
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InnerPlant CEO and Co-Founder, Shely Aronov, Named to Inc.’s 2025 Female Founders 500 List
DAVIS, Calif. (March 11, 2025) — InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, today announced that CEO and co-founder, Shely Aronov, was named by Inc, the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future, to its eighth annual Female Founders list. Following a competitive selection process, the 2025 list honors a bold group of 500 women whose innovations and ideas are leading their industries forward. These resilient entrepreneurs expressed grit and drive to collectively attract approximately $9 billion in 2024 revenue and $10.6 billion in funding.
By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors.
“The future of modern agriculture involves optimizing every aspect of how we farm, and technology-driven solutions are crucial to unlocking that potential,” said Aronov. “This recognition from Inc. is a testament to the InnerPlant team and underscores the significance of our work in creating a more efficient, resilient, and sustainable agricultural system.”
Each year, Inc. editors review thousands of applications highlighting female founders who are challenging the status quo and tackling some of the world’s biggest problems, and cull applicants through three rounds of judging, looking specifically at an entrepreneur’s bona fides in the past year. Criteria include quantifiable metrics such as revenue, sales, revenue growth, funding, and audience size. Inc. also looks for qualitative metrics including social media momentum and stories of impact.
Honoree selection is also honed through the evaluation of the program’s advisory board: Cate Luzio, founder and CEO of Luminary; Dany Garcia, founder, CEO, and chairperson of the Garcia Companies; Pinky Cole Hayes, founder and CEO of Slutty Vegan; Anu Duggal, founding partner at Female Founders Fund; Katherine Power, serial entrepreneur and partner at Greycroft; Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation and founder of the Cru; and Kay Koplovitz, co-founder and chair at Springboard Enterprises, founder of USA Network.
Since co-founding InnerPlant in 2018, Aronov has led the company through impressive growth, including the launch of its first commercial product, CropVoice—a novel fungal insights platform for soybeans. CropVoice helps farmers detect fungal infections early, addressing a problem that costs U.S. soybean growers an estimated $3.2 billion annually. A pivotal first step in InnerPlant’s technology journey to “every seed,” CropVoice enables crops to communicate with farmers for the first time in agriculture’s 10,000-year history. By delivering actionable insights directly from plants, InnerPlant’s new category of seed technology underpins a new era of responsive agriculture, transforming risk mitigation and decision-making on the farm.
The founders cross all industries and bring with them unique stories of success from each stage of the entrepreneurial journey — from startup to going public, being acquired by big buyers, or spending decades at the helm of an organization.
“Female founders know what struggle is, but they’re also experts of improvisation, adaptability, and creativity. The women featured on this year’s list exemplify these qualities. Through times of uncertainty, their unwavering dedication and steadfast leadership are not only inspiring but vital to driving progress,” said Inc. executive editor Diana Ransom.
To see the complete list of honorees, please visit: https://www.inc.com/female-founders
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
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Video: Croptastic S4, Ep 50: Detection
Croptastic returns for its fourth season with video! Join the InnerPlant team for exclusive peaks behind the scenes and special guests who join us to discuss the future of agriculture.
This episode we chat with Piyush Pandey and Brandon Rasmussen from our Detection team about the work they do detecting stress signals from InnerPlant's groundbreaking plants.
https://youtu.be/ETRKT33QPus?si=o1am7qZGW_-6oeiA
InnerPlant and Cooperative Producers, Inc. Partner to Bring CropVoice™ to Nebraska Soybean Growers
DAVIS, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2025) — InnerPlant, the seed technology company enabling the earliest precision detection of pathogens and other stresses in key row crops, today announced a partnership with Cooperative Producers, Inc. (CPI) to establish a demonstration field showcasing the CropVoice™ disease alert network. This announcement is a significant step in providing CPI’s farmer customers access to this first-of-its-kind disease scouting tool powered by signals tied directly to plant physiology and offers the earliest warning of fungal infection and the highest ROI crop protection strategies. Through an exclusive demonstration field hosted by InnerCircle farmer feedback community member, Brandon Hunnicutt, at Hunnicutt Farms, CPI will showcase how CropVoice delivers earlier, more definitive crop health insights—positioning CPI as a pioneer in precision scouting and agronomic decision-making.
“CropVoice fundamentally changes how farmers scout for fungal infections by tapping into signals generated by plants’ immune responses,” explained Gary Schaefer, InnerPlant’s SVP of Commercial and CropVoice General Manager. “CPI’s commitment to delivering their growers with access to this technology sets the standard for what modern agronomic support should look like—early, actionable, and data-driven.”
CPI’s demo plot site at Hunnicutt Farms is part of a collaboration with fifth-generation Nebraska farmer, Brandon Hunnicutt. Hunnicutt is also an early member of InnerPlant’s farmer feedback community, InnerCircle.
“CropVoice gives plants the ability to finally communicate their needs to growers, helping us make smarter, data-driven decisions on the farm,” Hunnicutt pointed out. “I joined InnerCircle years ago to be a part of bringing this technology to the field and am excited to be hosting this demonstration plot at Hunnicutt Farms.”
The CropVoice platform utilizes a network of sentinel plots featuring InnerSoy™. This first-of-its-kind soybean fungal sensor unlocks data tied directly to the soybeans’ natural immune response and is designed to emit an optical signal—detectable from as far away as space–within 48 hours of infection. InnerSoy data is analyzed using advanced predictive models to provide growers and agronomists with straightforward fungal alert notifications through the John Deere Operations Center or simple text messaging. Since CropVoice signals are linked to plants’ physiological responses, the network alerts growers and agronomists of crop fungal stress up to four weeks earlier than traditional scouting methods.
“For over a century, CPI has been dedicated to providing innovative agronomic solutions that give our growers a competitive advantage,” said Mike Battin, VP of Agronomy at CPI. “CropVoice represents a breakthrough in agronomic scouting and we’re excited to bring this technology to our growers, giving them a head start on the future of crop management.”
In 2026, CPI soybean growers will be able to enroll in CropVoice coverage, marking a key step in transforming risk mitigation and decision-making across Nebraska farms.
Retailers across Nebraska, Illinois, and Iowa are now enrolling CropVoice acres for the 2025 growing season–with coverage continuing to expand in 2026 and beyond. For more information and to inquire about CropVoice grower offerings for 2026, visit innerplant.com/cropvoice.
About Cooperative Producers, Inc. (CPI)
CPI is a farmer-owned cooperative serving Nebraska growers through an extensive network of 30+ retail locations. With a mission to provide innovative agronomic solutions, CPI offers best-in-class crop input services, grain marketing, and precision ag technologies to help farmers maximize productivity and profitability. Learn more at www.cpicoop.com.
About Hunnicutt Farms
Hunnicutt Farms is an irrigated farming operation in Giltner, Nebraska. Producing corn, soybeans, popcorn, and other crops in a sustainable manner through a combination of both conventional and organic practices. Hunnicutt aims to use the latest technology to improve efficiencies while researching new ideas to help with climate change. Hunnicutt Farms strives to seek out new and innovative partnerships that will have economic success and a positive environmental impact. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonhunnicutt
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants’ immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant’s first commercial product, CropVoice, was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024. The company is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere,Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants' immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com
InnerPlant Completes FDA’s New Protein Consultation Process with Support from United Soybean Board
DAVIS, Calif. (Jan. 22, 2025) — InnerPlant, the seed technology company engineering crops that communicate their needs, today announced that it completed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) New Protein Consultation (NPC) for the fluorescent protein used in the company’s first commercial product, InnerSoy. InnerPlant’s research and preparation of the report for the FDA’s early food safety evaluation were supported by a grant from the United Soybean Board (USB). The completion of this early food safety evaluation follows InnerPlant’s prior successful completion of the regulatory status review process through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“We are pleased to have achieved this milestone on our journey to making farming more universally efficient with the support of the USB and America’s farmers,” said Randall Shultz, Chief Product Officer of InnerPlant. “It is an important step in bringing InnerSoy to market and equipping farmers with data-driven tools that enable more resilient, sustainable, and productive farming practices.”
By tapping into plants' immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals at the earliest onset of stress through protein expression detectable by specialized equipment on a broad scale from as far away as space. InnerPlant’s crops signal stress through natural fluorescent proteins when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. By delivering actionable insights directly from plants, InnerPlant’s new category of seed technology underpins a new era of responsive agriculture, transforming risk mitigation and decision-making on the farm.
About InnerPlant
InnerPlant is a seed technology company developing novel traits that harness plant physiology and unlock actionable data at scale. The Company’s technology enables the earliest detection of pathogens and other stresses in key crops to make farming more efficient, sustainable, and resilient. By tapping into plants' immune systems, InnerPlant engineers crops that emit optical signals detectable by specialized equipment as far away as space when under attack by pathogens, pests, or other stressors. InnerPlant is backed by leading industry and venture partners, including John Deere, Systemiq Capital, and an alliance of North American farmers via Coutts Agro. For more information, visit innerplant.com