CropDesign is a biotech company located in Ghent, Belgium. The company develops a portfolio of agronomic traits for the global commercial seed markets. It has developed a technology platform to discover genetic traits for the improvement of corn, rice and other plants. Current CEO is Johan Cardoen.
The company was founded in 1998 as a spin-off from the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) and the Institute of Plant Biotechnology for Developing Countries of the University of Ghent. The company was financially backed until 2006 by a consortium of venture capital funds led by the GIMV. BASF Plant Science acquired the company in 2006. One of the founders of the company is Marc Van Montagu who is a Flemish pioneer in plant genetics.