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Tractor Zoom raises $5 million Series A round
Tractor Zoom, an Urbandale-based auction marketing and equipment pricing company, has raised $5 million in Series A funding for its digital marketplace that streamlines the equipment-procurement process for farmers and vendors. The funding round was led by Builders VC of San Francisco and Bienville Capital of New York. Next Level Ventures, ISA Ventures, Ag Ventures Alliance, Wintrust Ventures, Innova…
Sabanto raises $17 million in Series A funding
Sabanto, a Midwest-based farm autonomy company, has raised $17M in Series A funding. The round was led by Fulcrum Global Capital, with participation from DCVC Bio, Hico Capital, Yara Growth Ventures, Cavallo Ventures, Johnsonville Ventures, and Trimble Ventures.  Sabanto automates small farming equipment such as tractors with between 60 and 90 horsepower. The company also…
Mazen Animal Health raises $11 million Series A
Mazen Animal Health announced this week the closing of its Series A round of over $11 million. The round was led by Fall Line Capital and joined by all previous seed investors including Next Level Ventures, ISA Ventures, Kent Corporation, Ag Startup Engine, Ag Ventures Alliance Summit Ag. New investors, AgFunder, 1330 Investments, Addison Laboratories,…
WorkHound raises $12 million Series A round
WorkHound, an employee feedback and retention platform, announced today that it has successfully completed a $12 million Series A fundraising round. The capital, funded wholly by Level Equity, a growth equity firm based in New York City, will be used by WorkHound to add to its employee headcount, expand product offerings, and grow its…
OpenLoop raises $8 million Series A round
Des Moines health tech startup OpenLoop announced today a Series A financing round of $8 million. OpenLoop will use the capital to continue to expand its telehealth services and to grow its team. The company currently has 45 employees with plans to add another 25-30 employees by the end of the year. "Just six…
UIowa spin-off company hC Bioscience raises $24 Million Series A to develop protein-editing therapies
hC Bioscience, a drug discovery and development company focused on tRNA-based therapeutics targeting protein dysfunction, has closed a Series A financing of $24 million led by ARCH Venture Partners, Takeda Ventures and 8VC. hC Bio is advancing two complementary platforms. One is directed at restoring protein function when “nonsense mutations,” or premature termination codons (PTCs),…
Gross-Wen Technologies raises $6.5 million Series A round
Ames startup Gross-Wen Technologies has raised a $6.5 million Series A investment round, co-led by ISA Ventures and Iowa Farm Bureau’s Rural Vitality Fund. Other investors included Next Level Ventures, Mid-American Angels, Ankeny Angels, Ag Startup Engine, Oman Ventures, and 1330 Investments. Gross-Wen Technologies has a patented wastewater treatment technology that uses algae to…
GIA Graduate Cowbell Cyber Raises $20 Million In Series A Funding
Cowbell Cyber, an AI-powered cyber insurance provider based in Pleasanton, California, has closed $20 Million in Series A funding to scale its game-changing offering for continuous underwriting and closed-loop risk management. Brewer Lane Ventures led the investment with participation from Pivot Investment Partners, Avanta Ventures, Markel Corporation, and two existing Iowa-based investors, ManchesterStory and…
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting closes Series A round at $13 Million
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting, a radiopharmaceutical company based in Coralville, announced last week that it has closed its third and final tranche of Series A financing, bring the round to a total of approximately $13 million. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the Company’s two lead programs, VMT01 and VMT- 𝛼-NET, into Phase…
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting raises $8 Million in Series A Financing
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting, a pharmaceutical startup based in Coralville, has raised $8 million in Series A financing. Viewpoint is a University of Iowa startup pharmaceutical company that has developed novel therapy and companion diagnostics for cancer. The company says it expects to complete one or more additional tranches of this financing on the same terms over the next…
Tractor Zoom raises $3 million Series A round
Tractor Zoom, an Urbandale-based auction marketing and equipment pricing company, has raised $3 million in Series A funding to scale its transparent pricing and analytics platform, Iron Comps. Innova Memphis, Hyde Park Angels, Iowa Corn Opportunities, ISA Ventures, Ag Ventures Alliance, Ag Startup Engine and several strategic angel investors joined the round. The company’s software…
Series A Archives | Clay & Milk
A central Iowa ag-tech accelerator has secured more backers and finally has a name. The Greater Des Moines Partnership first announced the accelerator last year, naming four initial investors. On Monday, the Partnership said the program will be called the "Iowa AgriTech Accelerator" and named three new investors. The new investors include Grinnell Mutual, Kent Corp. and Sukup Manufacturing, all Iowa companies. They join investors Deere & Co., Peoples Co., Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. and DuPont Pioneer. Each investor has agreed to put up $100,000 for the first year of the accelerator. Startups entering the program will receive $40,000 in seed funding in exchange for 6 percent equity. Tej Dhawan, an angel investor and local startup mentor, is serving as interim director until the AgriTech Accelerator names a permanent leader. Dhawan held a similar role with the GIA before Brian Hemesath was named as managing director. As interim director, Dhawan said his main job includes hiring the accelerator's executive director, establishing a business structure and initial recruiting for the first cohort. The accelerator will place few filters, such as location and product, on the applicant pool, Dhawan said. "When you’re seeking innovation, innovation can come from every corner of the world so why restrict ourselves," he said. One area the the AgriTech Accelerator won't recruit from is biotech. For its first cohort, the AgriTech Accelerator will work out of the GIA's space in Des Moines' East Village, Dhawan said. A future, permanent home is still to be decided. The accelerator's program will host startups from mid-July through mid-October, ending with an event connected to the annual World Food Prize. The GIA, which the AgriTech Accelerator is based on, also ends with presentations at an industry event. The accelerator has also started lining up a mentor pool. The Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association and the Iowa Pork Producers Association have agreed to provide mentors, as has Iowa State University. While the AgriTech Accelerator is loosely based off of the GIA, it will differ in its business structure, Dhawan said. The GIA runs through a for-profit model for both operations and its investment fund. The AgriTech Accelerator will have a nonprofit model for its operations and a for-profit setup for its fund. Dhawan said the nonprofit model is being used so the accelerator can better work with other nonprofit partners, such as trade associations. "These are all organizations that are nonprofits and can be amazing stakeholders without ever having to be investors in the accelerator," he said. "It becomes easier to work with trade associations in their nonprofit role when we are also a nonprofit." When it's up and running, the AgriTech Accelerator would be one of a handful of ag-focused startup development programs in Iowa. Others include the Ag Startup Engine out of Iowa State University and the Rural Ventures Alliance from Iowa MicroLoan. Matthew Patane is the managing editor and co-founder of Clay & Milk. Send him an email at mpatane@clayandmilk.com.
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