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David Friedberg
InvestorFounderCEO at TPB · Founder at Ohalo Genetics
San Francisco
FoundedOhalo Genetics
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About
David (Dave) Friedberg is the founder of The Production Board (TPB), a San Francisco-based venture foundry and venture capital firm that both builds companies from scratch and invests across stages, from seed through growth and public markets. TPB concentrates on life sciences, food and agriculture, energy, and software, and raised $300 million in 2021 to pursue its "Reimagine Earth" mission with backing from investors including Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, and BlackRock. Its portfolio includes Triplebar, Pattern Ag, and Supergut. Friedberg previously founded The Climate Corporation, which was acquired for roughly $1 billion about a decade before his reflections on that milestone.
Invests in
AgTech
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Founded The Production Board (TPB), a San Francisco-based venture foundry and venture capital firm. Founded The Climate Corporation, which was acquired in a roughly $1 billion deal.
Mentioned above: the The Climate Corporation mafia →
From David's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Founder at Ohalo Genetics
Intro paths
In turn, David can intro founders to Ohalo Genetics's investors below.
Ohalo Genetics's investors · 3
Co-founders at Ohalo Genetics
Investments
Board seats
LavoroPattern Ag
Investor
8090Earth OpticsLavoroOhalo GeneticsPatternSupergutTriplebar
Sources: the firm's website · curated public sources · the investor's own website.
Public positions
He starts from planetary systems — how food, materials and medicine are actually produced — and asks where a biological or informational intervention changes the economics by an order of magnitude. The consistent move across his career is to measure a physical process first, earn the right to change it, then change it upstream at the genetics rather than downstream at the logistics.
2024 · Plant genetics
Unveiling Ohalo's Boosted Breeding, he described the yield gains from polyploid offspring that retain both parents' genomes as far beyond what conventional breeding cycles achieve.
The clearest statement of what he believes the leverage point in agriculture is.
2024 · Crop breeding
He has argued the technique makes true seed viable in crops like potato that have always relied on vegetative propagation, changing how those crops can be bred and shipped.
A specific, falsifiable technical claim rather than a general vision.
2021 · Firm strategy
Announcing a $300 million raise, TPB framed its purpose as reimagining the systems that produce what the planet consumes rather than investing within them.
Sets the scope of what he considers investable.
2016 · Company creation
TPB's stated approach is to build businesses from emerging scientific discoveries and give them the capital, infrastructure and market insight needed to deliver at least a tenfold improvement.
The published bar every pitch is measured against.
2013 · Agricultural technology
The Climate Corporation's sale to Monsanto established that agricultural software could produce venture-scale outcomes, a point he has made repeatedly since.
The exit that made the category credible.
2023 · His own role
He moved from investor to full-time Ohalo CEO, signalling that he believes the company requires operating leadership rather than governance.
Changes how founders should read his availability and his lens.
Prediction record
Pricing weather risk as a data product was right and produced a $1.1 billion exit. Per-mile insurance was directionally right but the standalone company did not survive as one. The Boosted Breeding yield claims are the open call — company-reported early trials look strong, and independent multi-season validation is the test that settles them.
Weather and climate risk could be priced and sold as a data product to farmers
Correct2006 · Years
WeatherBill became The Climate Corporation and sold to Monsanto for roughly $1.1 billion in 2013.
The business shifted substantially from insurance to agronomy along the way.
Per-mile pricing would restructure car insurance
Correct2011 · Decade
Metromile went public in 2021 but the standalone business struggled and was later absorbed; usage-based pricing did become mainstream inside incumbent insurers.
The idea travelled further than the company did.
Boosted Breeding delivers yield gains far beyond conventional breeding, including true seed for crops that have always been propagated vegetatively
Open2024 · Years
Early trials reported yield gains in the range of 50% to over 100%; commercial-scale validation is still in progress.
Trial results are company-reported; independent multi-season field validation is the test.
Holding-company structures suit deep-science businesses better than fund cycles
Open2016 · Decade
TPB has operated on this model for a decade; the thesis has not yet produced a definitive public outcome.
Unresolved.
Controversies & responses
Where David has drawn public criticism — with what happened, their response, and the criticism itself, side by side.
▶Company-reported yield claims2024
- What happened
- Ohalo's Boosted Breeding announcements reported yield gains of roughly 50% to over 100% in early trials, framed by trade press as a step change in crop breeding.
- The response
- Friedberg has presented the results publicly and in technical detail, and the company continues field trials at scale.
- The criticism
- The headline figures originate with the company; agricultural technology has a long history of early trial results that do not survive multi-season, multi-geography validation. Independent replication is the standard the claims will be judged against.
- Where it stands
- Open — commercial validation in progress.
▶Metromile's public-market decline2021
- What happened
- Metromile, which he founded and chaired until 2021, went public and subsequently fell sharply before being absorbed.
- The response
- He had stepped back from the chairmanship before the worst of the decline.
- The criticism
- Cited as an example of an insurance-technology company whose unit economics did not survive public-market scrutiny.
- Where it stands
- Historic.
▶Gene editing in the food supply2020
- What happened
- Ohalo's technology relies on CRISPR gene editing and proprietary proteins to alter plant reproduction.
- The response
- He argues the approach is a breeding accelerant that produces plants conventional breeding could in principle reach, only far faster.
- The criticism
- Gene-edited crops face regulatory and consumer-acceptance barriers that vary sharply by jurisdiction, and critics of agricultural biotechnology contest the framing that editing is equivalent to accelerated breeding.
- Where it stands
- Ongoing; regulatory treatment differs by market.
Podcasts & interviews
featuring David Friedberg'The yield gains are insane' — Friedberg unwraps Ohalo's Boosted Breeding
agtechnavigator.com · agtechnavigator.com
Production Board CEO on FDIC receivership, A.I. and Big Tech
CNBC Television
David Friedberg: The Real Reason Science Won't Save You
Dr Brian Keating
Colleagues at TPB
Frequently asked questions
- Who is David Friedberg?
- David (Dave) Friedberg is the founder of The Production Board (TPB), a San Francisco-based venture foundry and venture capital firm that both builds companies from scratch and invests across stages, from seed through growth and public markets. TPB concentrates on life sciences, food and agriculture, energy, and software, and raised $300 million in 2021 to pursue its "Reimagine Earth" mission with backing from investors including Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, and BlackRock. Its portfolio includes Triplebar, Pattern Ag, and Supergut. Friedberg previously founded The Climate Corporation, which was acquired for roughly $1 billion about a decade before his reflections on that milestone.
- Where does David Friedberg work?
- David Friedberg is Founder of Ohalo Genetics and CEO at TPB.
- What does David Friedberg invest in?
- David Friedberg invests in AgTech.
- What companies did David Friedberg found?
- David Friedberg founded Ohalo Genetics.
- What boards does David Friedberg sit on?
- David Friedberg holds tracked board seats at Lavoro, Pattern Ag.
- What companies has David Friedberg invested in?
- Investments tracked here include 8090, Earth Optics, Lavoro, Ohalo Genetics, Pattern, Supergut, Triplebar.
- What podcasts and interviews feature David Friedberg?
- Tracked appearances include "'The yield gains are insane' — Friedberg unwraps Ohalo's Boosted Breeding", "Production Board CEO on FDIC receivership, A.I. and Big Tech", "David Friedberg: The Real Reason Science Won't Save You".
Founder mafias
Google mafia1,712
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
University of California, Berkeley mafia1,343
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
The Climate Corporation mafia12
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
Metromile mafia6
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
TPB mafia4
Also came through, then founded or led a company.
About this profile. Compiled from public sources — TPB's own website, press coverage and public professional profiles — and summarised by Fundraising Fox; every fact is kept with where it came from. Spotted an error, or would rather not be listed? Email privacy@fundraisingfox.com · How we build profiles · Your rights