Six startup companies have been chosen that will participate in the AgLaunch365 accelerator after winning the 2019 AgLaunch Row Crop Challenge at the Farm Journal AgTech Expo earlier this month.
Two of the six companies—Continuum Ag and Sigma0—are based in Iowa. The six AgLaunch Row Crop Challenge winners are:
- Agrynex (Ithaca, NY) — packs and deploys antimicrobial systems for efficient crop protection with fewer chemicals
- Continuum Ag (Washington, IA) — quantifies and improves soil health by integrating diverse soil data into the online platform, resulting in actionable results
- Lepidext (Lexington, KY) — revolutionizing corn earworm pest control with an organic method for suppressing adult moths
- Nexyst360 (St. Cloud, MN) — a mobile solution for crop storage and transportation. We provide high-quality crops with full traceability tothe field of origin and date with the crop
- Nori (Seatle, WA) — a platform that makes it easy for farmers to get paid for storing carbon in their soils
- Sigma0 (Des Moines, IA) — enables crop management companies to access agronomic insights from radar technology, enabling them to zero in on crop details and provide better decisions for farmers
The six accepted companies will spend four weeks in Memphis, working their business strategy and preparing for summer field trials with AgLaunch’s Farmer Network.
As part of acceptance into the program, the companies will also receive investment from Innova Memphis and Ag Ventures Alliance. Innova Memphis’ Ag Innovation Fund IV is a $31 million, fund that focuses on early-stage investments anchored in rural America. Since announcing the Ag Innovation Fund, the firm has invested in four Iowa companies: Agrisync, Rantizo, SwineTech and Tractor Zoom.
“We are excited about the caliber and vision of these teams, and their capacity to totally transform the future of row crop agriculture,” said Schuyler Dalton, Director of Farmer Network and Entrepreneurship at AgLaunch in an announcement.
This will be the fifth cohort of the AgLaunch365 accelerator. Previous Iowa companies accepted into the accelerator include AgriSync, Rantizo and Swinetech.
Previous coverage
Innova Memphis invests in Iowa companies as it expands its focus to agtech -Nov. 14, 2018
Continuum Ag is offering soil health solutions at scale -Nov. 6, 2019