GlowingPlant

GlowingPlant was a San Francisco-based synthetic biology startup founded in 2013 that raised $484,013 via Kickstarter — the first synthetic biology project to crowdfund successfully — to engineer bioluminescent plants. Using Genome Compiler's software, the team inserted firefly bioluminescence genes into Arabidopsis thaliana (a small flowering plant) to create plants that glow in the dark without electricity. Co-founded by Antony Evans, the project attracted significant media attention and sparked public debate about DIY biotech and GMO regulation. The company pursued USDA-compliant gene-gun transformation techniques and planned to distribute seeds to US backers. However, the project ran out of funding around 2016-2017 and was unable to deliver the promised glowing plants to all backers, as reported by MIT Technology Review and The Atlantic. The company is considered defunct.