David Friedberg

David Friedberg
Friedberg in 2020
Born (1980-06-06) June 6, 1980
South Africa
CitizenshipSouth African, American
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
OccupationsEntrepreneur, businessman, angel investor

David Albert Friedberg (born June 6, 1980[1]) is a South African-American entrepreneur, businessman, and angel investor. He founded The Climate Corporation and served as its chief executive, overseeing its $1.1 billion sale to Monsanto in 2013, the first unicorn transaction in the emerging agricultural technology sector.[2][3] Friedberg later founded and leads The Production Board (TPB). He co-hosts the All-In podcast with David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, and Chamath Palihapitiya. Across his career he has contributed to 32 patents.[4] He invests as an angel in technology, food, agriculture, and life sciences startups with 16 exits.[5]

Early life and education

Friedberg was born in South Africa.[1] He moved with his family to Los Angeles, California, when he was six.[6] In high school he led the environmental club "Students H.O.P.E." (Students Healing Our Planet Earth).[7] At 16 he enrolled at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, worked in a pool hall, and learned to play poker.[1] After a year in upstate New York he transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he held a part-time job doing mathematical modeling at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and earned a bachelor's degree in astrophysics in 2001.[8]

Career

Google

After several years in investment banking and private equity, Friedberg joined Google in March 2004 as one of the first 1,000 employees and a founding member of Google's Corporate Development group.[9] As Corporate Development and Business Product Manager, Friedberg helped run Google's online advertising platform, AdWords, and negotiated acquisitions and worked with Google co-founder Larry Page.[10]

The Climate Corporation

In 2006 he founded his first company, WeatherBill, to create and buy custom weather insurance online while still working at Google as a business product manager.[11] He later recounted driving past the Bike Hut in San Francisco and watching sales slump on rainy days, which convinced him that weather created a major risk for small businesses.[12]

WeatherBill secured funding from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Index Ventures and Atomico.[13] In 2011 Friedberg renamed WeatherBill as The Climate Corporation.[14] The Climate Corporation offered farmers weather insurance and the climate.com service to help them track, analyze, and make field-specific decisions to improve agricultural outcomes. On 5 October 2011 Friedberg delivered his Entrepreneurship Gives Life Meaning lecture[15] at Stanford.

In October 2013, Monsanto announced that it was acquiring The Climate Corporation for about $1.1 billion.[16] Friedberg joined Monsanto's Executive Team after the acquisition and in 2016 shifted to an advisory role.[17]

Metromile and other roles

Friedberg founded the car insurance firm Metromile in 2011 and served as its chairman during its early years.[18][19] In 2014 he purchased Canadian quinoa supplier NorQuin, then North America's largest producer.[20] Above Food Corp. acquired NorQuin in 2022[21] and appointed Friedberg to its Innovation Advisory Council.[22]

The Production Board

In 2016 Friedberg began speaking with Larry Page about building and financing startups focused on food, agriculture, decarbonization, and life sciences.[23] Through Alphabet Page agreed to finance a holding company that Friedberg would operate.[24] Friedberg founded The Production Board (TPB) later that year.[3]

TPB partners with scientists, business leaders, and entrepreneurs to address challenges such as climate change.[25] Its portfolio includes Pattern Ag, Ohalo, Culture Biosciences, Triplebar Bio, Supergut, and Cana.[23] In July 2021, Friedberg announced that The Production Board raised $300 million from Alphabet, Baillie Gifford, Allen & Co., BlackRock, Koch Disruptive Technologies and Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global.[23]

Ohalo

Ohalo Genetics, a plant breeding company incubated by The Production Board in 2019, develops breeding systems and new crop varieties intended to raise yields while using fewer natural resources.[26][27] In November 2023 Friedberg became the company's full-time chief executive after helping found the venture.[28][29]

Under Friedberg Ohalo promotes a platform it calls "Boosted Breeding", which uses gene editing and quantitative genomics to control inheritance during reproduction. The firm states that the approach can produce polyploid offspring that retain the full genomes of both parents and can shorten breeding cycles across major crops.[30][31] In 2024 AgFunderNews reported that Ohalo had raised a little over $100 million, was developing programs in crops including potato, and planned to partner with seed companies on additional crops.[32]

Personal life

Friedberg co-hosts the All-In business and investment podcast with Chamath Palihapitiya, David O. Sacks, and Jason Calacanis.[33]

Friedberg is a lifelong vegetarian.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Specter, Michael (3 November 2013). "Climate by Numbers". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  2. ^ Burwood-Taylor, Louisa (21 February 2019). "Founder of Agtech's First Unicorn David Friedberg Reveals Investment Portfolio of The Production Board | Ag Funder News". AgFunder News. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b Wolf, Michael (24 June 2020). "Talking 23andMe For Farms, Bioreactors-as-a-Service & Other Crazy FoodTech Ideas With Dave Friedberg". The Spoon. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Google Patents". patents.google.com. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
  5. ^ "David Friedberg Investments". PitchBook. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  6. ^ "Anything Is Possible with Dave Friedberg | Where It Happens". YouTube. 3 March 2022. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  7. ^ a b Specter, Michael (3 November 2013). "Why The Climate Corporation Sold Itself to Monsanto". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  8. ^ Vahradyan, Ani (22 February 2017). "David Friedberg: Astrophysics, Eatsa, and Everything In Between". Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  9. ^ Woody, Todd (28 February 2011). "WeatherBill raises $42 million". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  10. ^ Bunge, Jacob (4 September 2014). "Monsanto, Under Attack for GMOs, Has a New Defender | Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  11. ^ Martin, Bobby (24 May 2016). The Hockey Stick Principles: The 4 Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success. Flatiron Books. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-250-06638-1.
  12. ^ Gullickson, Gil (18 November 2013). "How Climate Corporation Built Big Weather Data". Successful Farming. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  13. ^ Arrington, Michael (15 January 2007). "WeatherBill Launches, Announces All Star Investors". TechCrunch. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  14. ^ "Weatherbill changes company name to The Climate Corporation". Artemis. 11 October 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  15. ^ Tucker, Patrick (24 February 2015). The Naked Future: What Happens in a World That Anticipates Your Every Move?. Penguin. p. 80. ISBN 978-1-59184-770-0.
  16. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (2 October 2013). "Monsanto Buys Weather Big Data Company Climate Corporation For Around $1.1B". TechCrunch. Retrieved 31 July 2022.
  17. ^ Bunge, Jacob (23 March 2016). "Monsanto Executive David Friedberg Shifting to Advisory Role | Wall Street Journal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  18. ^ Sawers, Paul (21 September 2016). "Per-mile car insurance firm Metromile has raised $191.5 million since 2014, now underwrites its own policies". VentureBeat.
  19. ^ "SEC Form S-1 | SEC". SEC. 30 July 2021. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  20. ^ Little, Amanda (17 December 2016). "Quinoa is the new Big Mac". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  21. ^ Danley, Sam (19 May 2022). "Above Food acquires quinoa supplier| Food Business News". Food Business News. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  22. ^ "Above Food Appoints David Friedberg to Innovation Advisory Council| Yahoo.com". Yahoo.com. 2 June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  23. ^ a b c Levy, Ari (20 July 2021). "Early Google exec got Larry Page's backing to build a start-up factory focused on saving the planet | CNBC". CNBC. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  24. ^ "David Friedberg's Alphabet-backed Production Board raised $300 million | Planet Concerns". Planet Concerns. 30 July 2021. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  25. ^ "The Production Board's Dave Friedberg: "Technology will save the day - hopefully"". Danny in the Valley. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  26. ^ Friedberg, David (9 May 2023). "Here's why The Production Board raised $300 million to reimagine Earth". TPB. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  27. ^ "Ohalo". Ohalo. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  28. ^ Watson, Elaine (21 May 2024). "Armed with $100m in funding, Dave Friedberg unveils "boosted breeding" tech at Ohalo". AgFunderNews. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  29. ^ "About us". Ohalo. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  30. ^ Watson, Elaine (21 May 2024). "Armed with $100m in funding, Dave Friedberg unveils "boosted breeding" tech at Ohalo". AgFunderNews. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  31. ^ "Boosted Breeding". Ohalo. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  32. ^ Watson, Elaine (21 May 2024). "Armed with $100m in funding, Dave Friedberg unveils "boosted breeding" tech at Ohalo". AgFunderNews. Retrieved 9 October 2025.
  33. ^ "All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg". The All In Podcast. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
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