Hoofprint Biome, which recently closed a $4.25M pre-seed round of venture capital funding, was founded by two NC State Ph.D. grads with the mission to improve cattle’s gut health and, as a result, reduce methane — a major contributor to climate change.

For almost as long as NC State University has existed, sports rivals have teasingly called us Moo U or Cow College, thanks to our strengths in agricultural research and education.

So it’s only right that decades of groundwork at NC State might one day help cattle farmers worldwide better control their livestock’s gut microbiome — a collection of microbes that aid digestion — and cool the climate as a result.