After Mike Colwell retires at the end of this month as executive director of entrepreneurial initiatives at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, he’ll help lead one more session of the Partnership’s Raising Capital Seminar Series, a twice-yearly power course for entrepreneurs learning how to fund their business. Colwell, himself a private investor, is preparing to enjoy a […]
Nationwide is expanding its venture capital investment fund to $350 million directed toward high-growth potential insurtech and fintech startups, the company announced last week. The funding will be directed into high-growth potential insurance and financial service startups that advance Nationwide’s strategy in digital infrastructure, home solutions, retirement products, small and medium-sized businesses, telematics and fleet […]
Researchers at Iowa State University received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study how manure management systems in livestock production affect the development of bacteria capable of resisting antibiotics, ISU announced this week. The majority of antibiotics used today are in animal production; the researchers […]
Next Level Ventures and credit union partners of Members Development Co. have launched a new collaborative venture capital fund for the development of financial services technology in the credit union industry. NLV will structure and manage the investments from the Curql Fund (pronounced “circle”) in fintech companies. Curql — spelled that way to highlight the C and […]
FarmlandFinder is launching a sale-leaseback program of agricultural land as part of its online marketplace for farmland, CEO Steven Brockshus announced on Tuesday. The program allows an investor to acquire the land from the farm owner-operator and then lease it back on a long-term basis, which provides liquidity to farmers while helping them maintain ongoing […]
Gravitate Coworking is expanding to two new communities. The timing, nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, is unexpected, Gravitate owner Geoff Wood said. But opportunity knocked to set the coworking space up for the post-COVID world in Jefferson and Cedar Falls. “On the one hand, we’re in survivability mode to get to the end […]
Trokt, a Des Moines startup developing negotiations-management software and “Thumbprinter” technology, joined the LexLab Accelerator in San Francisco, based out of the University of California Hastings College of Law. Trokt is one of six participants in the legaltech accelerator’s first virtual cohort, and aims to develop its marketing for its new Thumbprinter documentation product before […]
The Iowa Biotechnology Association (IowaBio) is now accepting nominations for this year’s Iowa Biotech Leader Award, to be presented during the annual Iowa Biotech Showcase & Conference on March 3. The award is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. and will be presented to an individual who has demonstrated leadership, innovation and advocacy. […]
John Deere announced four new companies to its 2021 Startup Collaborator program: Nori (developing a carbon market), NVision Ag (developing nitrogen management decisions), Scanit (offering detection and classification of airborne plant pathogens) and Teleo (converting construction and mining equipment into tele-operated robots). Launched in 2019, the yearlong program enables John Deere and selected startup companies […]
For the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator, 2020 was a program success, executive director Nadilia Gomez said this week. In January, the accelerator received “unprecedented numbers” of applications for the 2020 cohort. At the onset of a global pandemic in the spring, IATA transferred the entire program virtually for the four participating startups. “We were able to […]