Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2018
Contact: Tim Sprinkle
iSelect Fund
(720) 278-8036
tsprinkle@iselectfund.com

Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series
Sponsored by iSelect Fund, The Van Trump Report and The Yield Lab Institute

ST. LOUIS, MO – iSelect Fund, The Van Trump Report and The Yield Lab Institute are pleased to announce the launch of a new weekly webinar series entitled Agrifood Conversations featuring the best in agricultural innovation. With in-depth presentations from some of the leading companies and entrepreneurs in the agtech space, Agrifood Conversations is all about driving agriculture innovation forward and sharing the stories, successes and developments in the industry.

Register Here

“Software, social media and the latest wearable gadgets might be getting all the attention, but its the technological changes that are shaking up the agriculture market that are really going to change our lives over the next decade,” says iSelect CEO Carter Williams. “We’re living through some of the most complex and challenging times that the ag market has ever experienced. We have to produce more food, but we’re going to have to do it with less arable land and fewer natural resources. This new webinar series will highlight the companies that are making this possible.”

Every month, Agrifood Conversations will highlight a specific theme, featuring emerging topics such as soil health, biologics, plant genetics, vertical farming, precision agriculture, herd management, aquaculture and more, featuring new and exciting companies at the forefront of the industry. Once a quarter, we’ll open up the conversation with a panel of experts on that month’s topic.

“Can we produce enough food? Can we produce it sustainably? And can we produce it at high quality in a way that is still affordable to end consumers? These are the big questions that are facing the ag industry right now,” says Kevin Van Trump, founder of The Van Trump Report. “They are also the questions that ag investors need to be focused on looking ahead.”

All webinar registrants receive a free short-term subscription to The Van Trump Report.

Adds Thad Simons, Managing Director of The Yield Lab: “We are thrilled to be partnering with iSelect and The Van Trump Report on the Agrifood Conversations series. The Yield Lab was founded to sustainably increase the global food supply and reduce inputs to agricultural production and distribution. Today, we’re doing this by partnering with the innovative companies that are working to revolutionize agrifood systems to more sustainably provide for the world, and this series is a great way to highlight their work.”

Agrifood Conversations is held every week at 3pm central time. In addition, on March 8th, Agrifood Conversations will be live at Venture Cafe in St. Louis, featuring the Future of Genetics & Agriculture. This special edition of Agrifood Conversations will feature a panel of experts in the biotech including Natalie DiNicola with Benson Hill Biosystems and Todd Mockler with the Danforth Plant Science Center, among others. Details Here

For more information or to register, visit Agrifood Conversations or contact Tim Sprinkle at (720) 278- 8036 or tsprinkle@iselectfund.com.

About iSelect: iSelect is a venture capital fund based in St. Louis, MO. Unlike other venture capital funds, however, iSelect is the first platform to offer the advantages of venture investing to all accredited investors. We do this for two reasons: To open up access to the venture capital asset class and its above-market returns to a larger group of potential investors, and to bring much needed capital investment to innovators and entrepreneurs working in a range of different industries. To date, iSelect has invested in 25+ startups, helped create more than 320 jobs and its portfolio companies are currently valued at more than $300 million combined. Learn more at www.iselectfund.com.

About The Van Trump Report: Edited and produced by Kevin Van Trump, The Van Trump Report, is a daily agricultural newsletter that strives to educate readers about what is driving markets and how to prepare for what might be coming next. The report circulates in over 35 countries worldwide and is a daily read by some of the industries top executives, fund traders, money-managers and political leaders. Learn more at vantrumpreport.com.

About The Yield Lab Institute: The Yield Lab brings together new innovative technologies focused on improving productivity, enhancing knowledge, eroding boundaries, and merging historically independent ecosystems into a more cohesive agricultural system. For more information, please visit www.theyieldlab.com.

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Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.

Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series

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Consideration

Timing

What is iSelect as a product?

What is the ideal iSelect company?

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

What is iSelect?

Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series

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Consideration

Timing

What is iSelect as a product?

What is the ideal iSelect company?

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

What is iSelect?