CryoBio, a New York agtech startup, raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding to tackle frost. Founder Murli Manohar says frost damage now costs roughly $30 billion in food waste each year, a risk that’s growing as shifting planting seasons leave crops more exposed to cold snaps.

The company is developing a precision-fermentation “anti-freeze” coating that protects plants for days — potentially up to two weeks — and is also working on a seed treatment farmers could apply with existing equipment. With field trials lined up across several states, CryoBio is betting that real-world results will determine whether frost protection becomes the next frontier in biological crop inputs.