Five agtech startups have been selected to the 2019 cohort of the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator, the accelerator announced this week. The program will run from June 3 to Aug. 30 in the East Village, with final Demonstration Day pitches during the World Food Prize in October. Participants are Otrafy (Vancouver, Canada);…
San Francisco-based HarvestPort, an early-stage agtech company developing a marketplace platform for farmers and supplies, is opening new offices in Des Moines, the company announced. HarvestPort has also hired Tyler Horbach, founder of agtech startup the FarmElement, as Grower Solutions Manager. Horbach previously founded the FarmElement in Jefferson, Iowa in…
The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator is searching for its next executive director, the Board of Directors announced on Monday. The new executive director would work closely with interim director Kerty Levy for the 2019 cohort and take full responsibility after the cohort’s end. A hiring decision is expected to be made…
At the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator’s second annual AgTech Day, nine agritech startups – mostly from Iowa, and two from Nebraska and California – jumped at the chance to meet the experts. Some of the founders have bootstrapped their business off the ground for initial sales. Others were seeking insight on…
Ames entrepreneur Steven Brockshus, founder and CEO of FarmlandFinder, is part of the AgGrad’s inaugural 30 Under 30 class of young professionals in agriculture, the platform announced on Monday. Brockshus was recently named the 2019 Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year for his pitch of FarmlandFinder, an online service tracking…
This week, entrepreneur and Startup Factory cohort member Shelby Smith is caring for 5,000 to 6,000 babies. On Wednesday, they were mostly under 24 hours in age. Jiminy crickets, that’s a lot of babes. Luckily for Smith, the “pinheads” are just young acheta domesticus — house crickets — and fit…
Former executive director Megan Vollstedt has left the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator to begin as the Agronomy & Technology Editor at Successful Farming, a Meredith Corp. publication. Vollstedt, who began at Successful Farming last week, was the first director at the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator. The accelerator launched the first cohort in…
Iowa State University researchers overcame the quirks of the soybean cyst nematode’s DNA to sequence its genome, paving the way for better management practices to combat the no. 1 pest that threatens Iowa soybeans, ISU announced on Friday. The research was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Genomics.
Ag Startup Engine at the Iowa State University Research Park has announced an initial seed investment of $50,000 in Chicago-based ClearFlame Engines – a company integrating low-carbon alternative fuels into diesel engines uses a high-temperature combustion process. ClearFlame Engines is the first company outside of Iowa to join the Ag…
Ames entrepreneur Steven Brockshus is the 2019 American Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year, the Iowa Farm Bureau announced on Monday. It is the fourth time in five years that an Iowa-based company has won the Farm Bureau’s Ag Innovation Challenge. As one of the final four contestants, Brockshus presented…
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