The challenge
Sparking new ways to grow from old knowledge
What if the future of food could grow from a spark of lightning – and a thousands‑of‑years‑old story about how to call down the rain?
For Indigenous biotech startup Rainstick, that question became the seed of a new approach to helping boost early plant growth. It also set the stage for a partnership with CSIRO’s ON Program, transforming a fragile lab hypothesis into a venture with national impact potential.
New innovation enhanced by cultural knowledge
Rainstick began with an unlikely moment of connection. In early 2022, inventor Mic Black – known for what one collaborator called his “textbook crazy” experiments – called proud Maiawali man and farmer Darryl Lyons to talk about electroculture: using controlled electric fields to mimic the effects of lightning on plants.
For Darryl, the idea struck a cultural chord. In Maiawali tradition, rainmaking ceremonies use a Chuggera, or lightning stick, to influence thunderstorms and call down rain. Mic’s modern experiments echoed stories Darryl had grown up with – and opened a path to bring ancient knowledge into a new scientific context.
“That moment – when an old story about lightning met a modern experiment with electric fields – became the starting point for Rainstick,” Darryl reflects. “As traditional Rainmakers, we held ceremonies to create electrical activity and influence weather systems. Now we’re asking how that same energy might help plants start stronger in a changing climate.”
A growing pressure on farmers
Around the world, farmers are under pressure to grow more food with less. Global production of major staple crops is growing at around 0.9–1.6% per year, well below the 2.4% needed to double output by 2050. Climate change is already slowing productivity and making harvests less reliable.
In Australia’s canola industry, this challenge shows up right at the start of the season. Only 50–60% of viable seed typically establishes, costing growers an estimated $100–200 million each year. Poor establishment means lost yield, extra re‑sowing and more passes across paddocks.
Meanwhile, markets and regulators are pushing for lower chemical use. Policies such as the European Union’s Farm to Fork strategy are targeting significant reductions in pesticide and fertiliser inputs. As Darryl puts it, “There is already an immediate market pull around organic and regenerative production.”
Our response
A lightning-inspired boost for seeds
Rainstick is exploring whether a short, precisely controlled electric field – similar in principle to the energy in a thunderstorm – can “prime” seeds so they germinate and emerge more strongly.
Seeds or seedlings receive brief, non‑contact bursts of oscillating electric fields. The goal is not to alter DNA, but to influence how plants signal growth and stress responses in the earliest stages of life. Some recipes have also shown signs of reducing mould pressure, offering a non‑chemical, non‑GMO complement to current seed treatments.
Importantly, Rainstick’s Variable Electric Field (VEF) system fits into existing seed‑treatment workflows. Seed companies or nurseries apply the treatment upstream, and growers plant as normal – no new on‑farm hardware, and no changes to existing sowing equipment.
“If this works the way we hope, farmers won’t have to buy a new machine or learn a new system,” Mic explains. “They’ll just order treated seed – the complexity stays behind the scenes.”
Turning a hypothesis into a venture: The ON journey
When Mic and Darryl applied to ON Accelerate, Rainstick was little more than a powerful idea and a handful of early experiments. Their core question: Could lightning‑like bioelectric signals reliably improve crop establishment in the real world?
ON Accelerate sharpened that question and the business behind it. Over three months, the team refined their model, clarified their impact pathway and – critically – listened to growers, agronomists and seed‑treatment partners.
“It was the first time we sat down together, focused on the same problem, and treated it like a business,” one co‑founder recalls. “That forced discipline changed how we work as a team – and how we see our own technology.”
Being selected for ON Accelerate 7 also sent a strong signal. “Being linked to CSIRO through ON gave us a credibility we didn’t have before,” says Darryl. “Suddenly, researchers and commercial partners were willing to listen, to test, and to collaborate.”
That credibility opened doors to:
- CSIRO Kick‑Start projects, co‑funding early validation and helping build a purpose‑built 400 m² bioelectric lab that has now tested around 100,000 seedlings.
- Industry trials with partners including Riverine Plains, Boomaroo Nurseries, Australian Soil Planners and Arable Field Research.
- International programs such as the India–Australia RISE Accelerator and CSIRO’s Venture Exchange Program, which are helping Rainstick explore markets in India and Southeast Asia.
Supporting Rainstick is an example of ON's broader role as strategic impact infrastructure. The program selects ventures aligned with national priorities like food security, climate resilience and elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems, then builds their commercialisation capability and connects them into CSIRO’s science and networks.
Indigenous leadership and shared value
Rainstick’s story is not only about technology; it is also about who leads, who benefits and how knowledge is respected.
Rainstick is widely recognised as an Indigenous‑led startup blending Maiawali cultural knowledge with modern bioelectric science, with Darryl serving as Chief Rainmaker and co‑founder. To ensure those origins translate into tangible benefit, the company has created a special shareholder class for the Maiawali Foundation, giving the community a non‑dilutive share of future value.
This structure is designed so that as the company’s valuation grows, the Maiawali community shares directly in that success.
Rainstick’s model also supports broader national agendas, including elevating First Nations knowledge systems and improving food security in remote communities. Because treatment happens upstream it lowers access barriers. Growers access the technology through treated seed – not expensive on‑farm infrastructure.
The results
From bunker experiments to global momentum
The path from idea to impact potential has required a mix of stubborn experimentation and strategic partnerships. When local facilities couldn’t accommodate high‑voltage work, Mic once set up experiments in a World War II bunker in Serbia – an anecdote that led a collaborator to quip, “Mic, you know this is textbook crazy, right?” to which he replied, “Oh yeah, it’s definitely textbook crazy.”
From those beginnings, Rainstick has attracted more than $2 million in combined equity and grants. From investors including Bandera Capital, Main Sequence Ventures, Startmate, Better Bite Ventures and Rio Tinto Ventures, alongside programs such as Advance Queensland’s Ignite Spark and the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Program.
Awards and recognition, from Australian climate‑tech prizes to an Earthshot Prize 2025 nomination, have further raised the profile of a company that still describes itself as very much in the trial stage.
“The science still has to stand up over seasons and across regions,” Mic says. “But what we’ve built with CSIRO and ON is the capacity to test that properly, with the right partners, and to scale it if the evidence holds.”
What’s next: Proving performance, scaling impact
Rainstick’s next phase remains deeply evidence‑driven. Plans include:
- Scaling treatment capacity to ~500 kg of seed per week by mid‑2026, with a goal of ~1 tonne per day within three years.
- Refining recipes and logistics to manage the current 14‑day window between treatment and sowing.
- Running a validation trial in India, paving the way for entry through the India–Australia RISE Accelerator.
- Exploring partnerships in Southeast Asia through CSIRO’s Venture Exchange Program.
- Continuing multi‑season trials with Riverine Plains and others to understand how early establishment gains influence yield, gross margins and input use.
For ON, Rainstick demonstrates how early, strategic support can “prime” impact long before final outcomes are known. By backing an Indigenous‑led, nationally relevant venture and connecting it into CSIRO science and networks, ON has helped increase the likelihood that Rainstick’s lightning‑inspired innovation can deliver real benefits for farmers, communities and the environment.
As Darryl sums it up: “This is something we want to spend the next 10 years doing. If there’s an idea that says this has to exist – and it honours where we come from – you have to do it.”