Facebook’s Community Action Grants program is now open to applications from regional nonprofits and school systems, targeting the surrounding area of the Facebook Altoona Data Center, the company announced this week. The program, which accepts applications until Dec. 3, is available to organizations addressing critical community needs through technology and can improve local STEM (science, technology […]

Customers have mixed opinions after Alliant Energy announced a new program to install meters for gas and electric service that send out radio signals to the company, reports Radio Iowa. The Iowa Utilities Board previously ruled against charging customers a fee if they wanted to opt out of the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) program; the latest […]

The UnityPoint Health Sepsis Work Team received the Iowa Lean Consortium (ILC) Iowa Partners in Efficiency award for reducing variation in sepsis patients’ clinical care. Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body’s response to an infection. The UPH Sepsis Work Team standardized work to reduce variation in processes, increasing the level of […]

The Ames-based autonomous farming platform Smart Ag has been acquired by Raven Industries, a Sioux Falls-based industrial company with the precision agriculture division Raven Applied Technology. The acquisition falls under the newly-established Raven Autonomy, the company’s strategic growth platform for autonomous agriculture solutions announced on Oct. 28. Smart Ag launched in 2015 and is most […]

Startups joining the Global Insurance Accelerator’s 2020 cohort will be the first cohort experiencing a newly revamped funding structure and a recently raised investment.  Startups will receive an investment of $75,000 through a post-money Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), which converts to 5% of the startup. It’s an increased investment from the $40,000 the […]

The Technology Association of Iowa, PC Matic and the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce are partnering to present the Siouxland Manufacturing Tech Town Hall on Nov. 6. Panel members include Michael Bird, CEO and co-founder of Spindustry; Hank Norem, president and CEO of Ramco Innovations; and Jerry Steenhoek, chief technologist for Interstates. The Siouxland Manufacturing Tech […]

Applications are open to broker-and-agent-centric, early-stage startups for the 2020 BrokerTech Ventures Accelerator cohort. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 29, and accepted startups will be notified in early February. The cohort will begin the five-week program in March. Each startup may receive up to $50,000 in seed funding, the accelerator said in a news […]

Igor, a central Iowa startup focusing on turning company buildings into “smart assets,” joined 14 other startups at the 2019 Unreasonable Impact Americas program held in New York. The initiative is a partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to support high-growth ventures tackling social and environmental challenges to scale. Entrepreneurs in the program were selected […]

SwineTech, a Cedar Rapids-based agtech startup designing products to protect piglets from accidental crushing by their mothers, received October’s Business of the Month award by America’s SBDC Iowa. SwineTech has won multiple awards from MIT, the American Farm Bureau and the Investors Hall of Fame; co-founders Matthew Rooda and Abraham Espinoza have also been recognized […]

Sundeep Vani joined Iowa State University in the newly-created role of chief technology officer for biobased products, the university has announced. As CTO, Vani will work with Biobased Product platform lead Brent Shanks and the Iowa Innovation Corp. to identify promising emerging technologies and develop them into commercial products. Vani has spent the last two […]