InnoVenture Iowa has announced the three finalists for the InnoVenture Challenge who will pitch at the live event on Dec. 5 in Des Moines. The finalists are Immuno Nano Med, founded by Balaji Narasimhan, Repaint Studios, founded by Billie Asmus, and NarrateAR, founded by Karri Haen Whitmer and Christopher Whitmer. Registration for the event is available online.
AcreShield, a Des Moines-based startup founded to help farmers mitigate their financial risk by increasing yields, has raised more than $2.5 million in venture capital funding, the company recently announced. According to a news release, AcreShield aims to address the yield gap, which is the difference between a crop’s potential yield and its actual yield. […]
InnoVenture Iowa has announced the 10 semi-finalists for the 2024 InnoVenture Challenge. Three of the startups will compete in the pitch competition set for Dec. 5 in Des Moines. The semi-finalists are:
InnoVenture Iowa is now accepting applications for its third annual InnoVenture Challenge, a pitch competition that awards $100,000 to one early-stage Iowa startup. The application window closes at 5 p.m. Sept. 30. Judges will select 10 semi-finalists from the pool of applicants, which will then be narrowed to three finalists who pitch to a panel of […]
Podcast’s first season looks to elevate insights of founders, ecosystem builders around Iowa, says host Kaylee Williams InnoVenture Iowa Investment Director Kaylee Williams met many startup founders while traveling the state hosting workshops to coach early-stage businesses on raising venture capital. In those moments, she wished she could tell their stories to a wider audience and in […]
InnoVenture Iowa, Iowa’s first publicly backed venture capital fund, announced it has invested just over $6 million in 22 companies since launching in 2022. It has made six new investments since December 2023, bringing its total portfolio companies to 21. The new portfolio companies are: To read Investment Director Kaylee Williams’ summer update on InnoVenture’s recent Heartland […]
InnoVenture Iowa, Iowa’s first publicly backed venture capital fund, announced it has invested just over $6 million in 22 companies since launching in 2022. It has made six new investments since December 2023, bringing its total portfolio companies to 21. The new portfolio companies are: To read Investment Director Kaylee Williams’ summer update on InnoVenture’s recent Heartland […]
Several events this spring will focus on helping startups learn what they need to raise capital for their business. The Greater Des Moines Partnership is holding the one-day Raising Capital for Startups event on April 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is designed to help startup founders learn about what options they have when looking […]
InnoVenture Iowa, the first public venture capital fund in Iowa, has added three new companies to its investment portfolio since the second quarter, it has announced. The fund began co-investing in early-stage, Iowa-based startups in bioscience, advanced manufacturing and information technology in 2023. A list of all of InnoVenture Iowa’s investments to date is available here. The […]
Nora Springs-based startup ReEnvision Ag was selected Wednesday evening by a panel of judges as the winner of the 2023 InnoVenture Challenge, a $100,000 pitch competition co-hosted by InnoVenture Iowa and BioConnect Iowa. ReEnvision Ag is creating a new category of planter for farmers called SeedSpike, which extends the planting window, reduces soil compaction and […]