America’s Cultivation Corridor has announced nine startups from the United Kingdom have joined the fifth cohort of its Cultivo Virtual Academy program. The fifth cohort launched on Feb. 18.
The companies will participate in a six-week virtual program with sessions hosted by Iowa agricultural leaders that focus on U.S. market entry, regulatory and financing systems, and customer perspectives.
“Cultivo Virtual Academy provides an opportunity for scaleups to connect with Iowa’s business leaders, researchers and forward-thinking farmers and livestock producers to learn about the market, regulatory and other factors that are unique to the U.S. marketplace,” said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority in a press release. “The world-class speakers, networking opportunities and connections they will make through this program will help them more successfully navigate their entry into the complex U.S. market.”
Participating companies include:
• AgriSynth generates synthetic imagery of crops with annotation data to train artificial intelligence models for AI-based vision systems in agriculture.
• AgSenze provides technology solutions to automate cow health and productivity monitoring, including its HerdVision system.
• DairyLight Ltd. manufactures and distributes LED light products with specific light spectrums to improve visibility, welfare, productivity and fertility for indoor housed herds.
• Earth Rover uses innovative technologies, AI and robotics to improve farmers’ efficiency and productivity, including the development of an autonomous farming robot for weeding, scouting and data analysis.
• Fa Bio is harnessing fungi to discover microbial active ingredients with disease control, plant growth promotion and fertilizer activities to increase productivity with fewer inputs.
• Flox is bringing enterprise-grade computer vision and machine learning to help poultry farms make data-driven decisions about animal welfare, health and performance.
• Gardin has developed a cloud-based crop intelligence system for controlled environment agriculture, featuring optical sensors to generate performance alerts and growth insights.
• LettUs Grow designs and builds aeroponic technology and farm management software for indoor and vertical farms.
• SugaRox Ltd. is developing a platform technology for crop stimulation with active ingredients to mimic natural plant molecules that stimulate carbon use and allocation.