Japanese agtech startup Culta is negotiating expansion into Australia, the US and Europe as it chases ¥30 billion ($195 million) in revenues by 2032, betting that AI-accelerated breeding combined with a vertically integrated branded-produce model can travel beyond Asia.

The company, founded in 2017 by Shuhei Noaki, develops proprietary fruit varieties and licenses them to 36 contract growers with agronomic support attached. Culta buys back 100% of the crop and sells the branded fruit to customers in Japan and Southeast Asia. "We're applying the kind of vertically integrated business models developed by Zespri and Driscoll's," Noaki says.

Five-fold faster breeding

Culta uses machine learning to analyze correlations between genomic data and phenotypic data on crop traits to identify the most promising parents for crossing. The approach relies on conventional breeding rather than gene editing or genetic modification.

Data-driven breeding is not new. What sets Culta apart is the combination with rapid breeding cycles in controlled indoor environments: the company runs three strawberry breeding cycles a year, against one under conventional outdoor conditions in Japan. Cultivation data from its network of third-party growers feeds a proprietary variety database that Noaki claims constitutes a data set "that is extremely difficult to replicate."

The company says the net result is breeding cycles "at least five times faster" than conventional methods, cutting strawberry variety development from the typical 10 years to two.

Strawberries were an obvious first target. Japanese strawberries are prized for sweetness and eating quality, but hotter spring weather has shortened the season — Japan once shipped strawberries from December to June and now struggles to sell beyond April, Noaki says. Culta's debut variety SAKURA DROPS withstands early-spring heat and ships until June, with yields 1.4 times higher and Brix sugar content 1.3 times higher than the leading Japanese cultivar Benihoppe.

The fruit is also 1.4 times firmer, extending shelf life so fully ripened strawberries hold quality for over 10 days in transport. The brand sells in high-end retailers in Singapore and Malaysia at S$20 ($16) per pack.

Culta recently commercialized white strawberry varieties with improved sweetness, yield and disease resistance, aimed at China and Southeast Asia, where white fruit is popular in the premium gift market but has historically lagged red varieties on taste and performance. "The buyers at supermarkets in Southeast Asian countries say these are the best-tasting white strawberries in the world, so the taste is very distinctive," Noaki says.

Apples, grapes, hops — and eventually coffee and cacao

Culta began breeding table grapes and apples last year and aims to launch varieties in both crops by 2030, with coffee and cacao programs in the pipeline. In Japanese table grapes, increasingly hot summers interfere with fruit coloration, and apple production is becoming harder even in northern Japan. "The amount of supply is decreasing because of climate change," Noaki says.

Fruit trees pose challenges for speed breeding, but the company is experimenting with growing them indoors to compress cycles. It is also four years into a collaboration with Kirin on heat-tolerant hops, a crop not traditionally grown indoors. "We achieved the flowering in two years. After that we started the crossing," Noaki says.

Why not gene editing?

Although Culta has biotechnology expertise in-house, the traits it targets are poorly suited to editing, Noaki says. Yield and Brix are governed by large numbers of genes rather than a single target, and strawberries are octoploid. "This makes them difficult to edit."

The next test comes in new geographies. Culta closed a ¥700 million ($4.5 million) pre-series A round in April. "We are planning to start strawberry production in Australia to increase the supply to the Asian market, and also we are looking for the opportunity to start the production in the US and Europe because they have a huge strawberry market, but the taste is totally different compared with Japanese strawberries," Noaki says.

Whether a breeding and branded-produce model built in Asia can translate to Western markets with different taste preferences and retail structures will determine if Culta hits its 2032 revenue target.