Inside the intimate auditorium at the Science Center of Iowa, an audience of startup community partners, members and investors displayed their energy and excitement for the 2021 Techstars Iowa cohort at the Demo Day event Wednesday. Founders from the 10 companies each spent three minutes pitching their concepts and sharing…
The Small Business Administration announced 76 awards for accelerators supporting inclusive entrepreneurship, including two from Iowa. The New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative (NewBoCo) and Rural Business Innovators Iowa SBDC will receive $50,000 each as winners of the 2021 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, which recognized efforts that “targeted assistance to STEM/R&D entrepreneurs…
The Techstars Iowa Accelerator is welcoming 10 new companies to the 2021 cohort. Nearly all those in this year’s cohort founded their business amid the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns during 2020, said Kerty Levy, managing director of Techstars Iowa. “What that says is that they’re hopeful. They trust that they can…
Seven international startup companies will join the first six-week Cultivo Virtual Academy, America’s Cultivation Corridor announced. The program is designed to provide participants with networking and mentorship among Iowa’s agricultural leaders and an online curriculum focused on U.S. market entry, regulatory and financing systems and customer perspectives. The program begins April…
BrokerTech Ventures announced the addition of carrier Zurich North America to the BrokerTech platform and accelerator program this week. The addition of Zurich North America now brings BTV to 24 insurance brands nationally. BTV recently announced partnerships with InsurTech Israel and Ayalon Insurance Company to launch the Israeli InsurTech Accelerator…
The Hawkeye Startup Accelerator at the University of Iowa is accepting applications from student individual and team founders for its 11-week summer program, which takes place from May 17 to July 31. Founders will receive a $5,000 living stipend. The application is available online.
The Iowa Go-to-Market (G2M) Accelerator announced the inaugural 2021 G2M cohort of five participating Iowa biotechnology startups. Cohort members are CartilaGen of Iowa City, Classroom Clinic of Carroll, FBB Biomed of Coralville, Mazen Animal Health of Ames and Sushi3D, also of Ames. The accelerator is supported by BioConnect Iowa, VentureNet…
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…
Bioconnect Iowa is debuting a new brand two years after shifting its mission toward the state’s biosciences, the organization formerly known as the Iowa Innovation Corp. announced this year. The change in name is just the start: Bioconnect Iowa partnered this year with Iowa State University’s Startup Factory and VentureNET…
BrokerTech Ventures is launching the first step in international expansion with a partnership between the BrokerTech Ventures U.S. Accelerator and the newly formed Israeli InsurTech Accelerator, based in Tel Aviv. The accelerator will use BrokerTech Venture’s accelerator program to help local Israeli insurtech supporters build its own regional accelerator, while developing…
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-Sarah Diehn, Business Record Editor