Wyatt Warkenthien is Co-Founder and Head of Operations at Lilac Agriculture, a next-generation crop inoculant company spun out of North Dakota State University research, focused on improving the biological performance of rhizobium strains for pulse crops.

Wyatt earned a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from North Dakota State University, where he served as President of the Biotechnology and Microbiology Club and held leadership roles in the NDSU Genetic Engineering Corps and Pathway Ventures.

Wyatt co-founded Frontier Bioforge LLC, which later evolved into Lilac Agriculture, bringing together his laboratory expertise and operational acumen to commercialize cutting-edge agricultural biologicals.

Prior to Lilac, Wyatt contributed to biomanufacturing and business development at Agathos Biologics, served as a Lab Tech III at Aldevron implementing GMP-compliant clean room techniques, and serves as a Board Advisor at Houser Labs.

Lilac Agriculture raised a $2.3M seed round led by Innova, oversubscribed from an original $1.5M target, and launched its first commercial product PL11, a shelf-stable rhizobium powder for pea and lentil crops, with plans to expand into the Canadian market.