Connecting Innovators, Investors, Industry Professionals and Early Adopter Customers
From improvements in nutritional value, to better resource efficiency, to improved yield, to better cost controls, the agriculture industry is ripe for disruption. It’s happening already, with harvesting automation systems, sensor-based farm management tools and other advanced technologies already appearing on the modern farm. iSelect is investing in the entrepreneurs who are focused on making these innovations happen.
“Given the overall AgTech entrepreneurial activity in the region, and the large number of multinational players, the American Heartland can be a powerful influence in driving the objectives of the AgTech revolution. Taken together, these resources indicate a regional competitive advantage in AgTech, similar to what the Silicon Valley cluster has provided for the IT industry.”
“AgTech: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Growth”, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, April 2014
iSelect Portfolio Companies
iSelect focuses on early-stage food and agriculture companies that are poised to help push the next agricultural revolution forward. We deliberately invest in companies that can make a positive impact on our society, as well as on the bottom line.
Location: Champaign, IL
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Agrible sells software that connects the agricultural supply chain from field-to-market, providing critical sustainability,agronomic, and yield data.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Prior Round Funding: Series C
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Arable is an agricultural data company that combines proprietary in-field sensors and crop & data models to dramatically improve efficiency and intelligence of agricultural operations.
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Artemis is a software company making indoor farming profitable, efficient and traceable, enabling growers to drive the indoor farming revolution.
Location: Tel Aviv, AL
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Autonomous Pivot turns center-pivot irrigation systems into a noninvasive soil/crop sensor and communications network. This network feeds an artificial intelligence decision support engine for autonomous irrigation, fertigation, and crop protection, which ultimately helps growers maximize yield and minimize inputs.
Location: St. Louis, MO
Prior Round Funding: Series D
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Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that taps the natural genetic diversity of plants to develop healthier and more sustainable food. CropOS combines machine learning and big data with genome editing and plant biology to differentiate and accelerate the product development process to modernize our food system.
Location: Boulder, CO
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Bond Pet Foods, Inc (“Bond” or the “Company”) develops alternative protein pet foods. Their microbial fermentation process uses animal DNA to create animal proteins without slaughtering any animals. The Company is currently in the process of obtaining regulatory clearance for its novel meat proteins and plans to sell its products to ingredient and pet food suppliers as well as direct to consumers.
Location: Charlottesville, VA
Prior Round Funding: Series C
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Bonumose is commercializing low-glycemic index, natural sugars through a proprietary, cost-effective enzymatic process.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Brightseed is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered nutrition discovery company that identifies unique micronutrients in the plant kingdom and maps them to specific human health conditions where they can have the highest impact.
Location: Riverside, CA
Prior Round Funding: Seed
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FarmRaise helps farmers access financing and manage their business finances, faster and more effectively.
Location: San Leandro, CA
Prior Round Funding: Seed
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Geltor has a platform technology that enables it to cost effectively produce sustainable and beneficial proteins for the cosmetic, food, beverage, nutritional supplement, and healthcare industries.
Location: Blacksburg, VA
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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EarthOptics is building the technologies and data products that will allow for the accurate measurement and modeling of key soil attributes, enabling land managers to improve soil health and unlock the value of healthy soils.
Location: Johnston, IA
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Growers Edge offers warranty and lending products and services in the agtech marketplace. Their warranties help farmers by guaranteeing yield with the adoption of new technologies.
Location: Raleigh, NC
Prior Round Funding: Seed
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Harpe Bioherbicide Solutions, Inc. (“Harpe”) is an agtech company focused on providing natural and sustainable solutions to expand and provide new opportunities for organic agriculture while reducing, replacing, and synergizing with synthetic chemical use in row & specialty crops and commercial & consumer markets.
Location: Plant City, FL
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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HarvestCROO is building the premier automation and robotics solution to solve the labor shortage crisis in specialty agriculture, starting with strawberries.
Location: Longmont, CO
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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HerdDogg’s patented animal wearable technologies provide animal tracking and aid in the identification of missed heats, illness, and dystocia (difficult births) for the 2.5 billion herd animals worldwide.
Location: Glen Mills, PA
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Holganix produces organic plant probiotics that make soils and plants healthier, more resilient, and more productive.
Location: Somerville, MA
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Kula Bio is an agriculture biotechnology company that aims to extend the life of microbes to unlock their biological potential and maximize their impact.
Location: St. Louis, MO
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Kultevat combines genetic breeding and chemical process engineering to produce natural rubber from the Russian dandelion in North America.
Location: Silver Spring, MD
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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Mercaris is a market data service and trading platform for organic, non-GMO, and other Identity Preserved (IP) agricultural commodities.
Location: Oakland, CA
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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TradeLanes offers a SaaS-based trade execution and automation platform that eliminates the manual tasks needed to ship ocean containers. Its interface accesses real-time data about shipments, destinations, and clients, TradeLanes simplifies the export/import process by driving efficiencies, improving visibility, and reducing errors in the process.
Location: Emeryville, CA
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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PatternAg’s crop protection product delivers actionable intelligence to farmers, based on high resolution mapping of the DNA found in a farmer’s soil. With nearly 100 billion organisms per soil core, Pattern’s metagenomic DNA sequencing technology maps the unique microbial community found in a farmer’s field, identifying key opportunities to increase yield and save money. Armed with Pattern’s insights into next season’s risks, especially from the most costly pathogens like Corn Rootworm and Soybean Cyst Nematode, farmers can apply recommended protective measures to maximize their yield or save money on inputs when those risks are absent.
Location: Durham, NC
Prior Round Funding: Series B
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PlantResponse Biotech is a Raleigh, NC based company that is developing and commercializing biologically related products that improve plant health and protect yield potential.
Location: Saint Louis, MO
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Plastomics has developed a proprietary genetic engineering model that can produce high performing crops through editing the chloroplast.
Location: Columbus, OH
Prior Round Funding: Seed
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ProteoSense is building a biosensing platform for rapid, cheap and highly sensitive food safety testing.
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Prior Round Funding: Series C
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Sentera is a UAV and crop analytics company delivering the most comprehensive suite of value-added hardware and software solutions available today to growers & agronomists.
Location: Springfield, TN
Prior Round Funding: Series C
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Stony Creek Colors, Inc. produces eco-friendly, bio-based dyes for sale to premium denim and garment brands, as well as other consumer goods, to allow them to sell traceable and environmentally friendly products.
Location: Chicago, IL
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Tillable, Inc. is a digital agriculture real estate platform that allows farmers, landowners, sellers, and buyers to buy, sell, rent, manage, or finance farmland.
Location: San Diego, CA
Prior Round Funding: Series A
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Vence is a livestock data management and technology company that enables the scaling of the sustainable production of nutritious grass fed and pasture raised livestock. Its initial offering is solving the labor and capital intensive problem of fencing in pastured livestock management. The benefits to livestock management include improved control of animal movement, enhanced nutritional quality of animal products, reduced land degradation, improved soil health and sequestration of carbon in the soil.
Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Prior Round Funding: Series C
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Vestaron is developing new products in the crop protection industry that address the growing concerns of resistance, high costs of R&D, and safety/environmental externalities.
Meet Our Selection Committee
Our Food and Agriculture Selection Committee consists of industry and subject matter experts who help guide iSelect’s investment decisions. With firsthand experience and a true pulse on the industry, we consider these individuals key to our success in finding and investing in food and ag innovation.
Bill Northcott is the Chief Innovation Officer at Agrible. He works on developing and researching the science and feasibility of new products. Bill is a sixth generation farmer and currently manages a 500 acre corn/soybean…
Chris Harbourt, Ph.D., co-founder of Agrible, Inc., is a world-class scientist and engineer with an eye on innovation and growth. Chris brings over 25 years of agricultural experience to Agrible and is heavily involved in…
Mr. Tom Willis serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Conestoga Energy Partners LLC. Mr. Willis is responsible for all aspects of the business. He joined Conestoga in November 2006. He possesses widespread knowledge in…
Todd is a recognized expert in functional genomics, bioinformatics, and plant systems biology, and is focused on accelerating discovery and development by more accurately predicting plant performance. He has built capabilities and toolsets that manipulate…
Tim is Vice President of G.M. Lawerence and Company, with a demonstrated history of working in the farming industry. He is skilled in management, agricultural production, precision agriculture, agribusiness, and strategic planning. Tim graduated with…
Mr. Steve Barr is a Co-Founder of Osborn & Barr Communications, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Barr has more than 35 years of marketing and communications planning experience. He is a…
Dr. DiNicola has over 20 years of experience in the agri-food industry and a decade of experience in sustainability and agriculture development. Through DiNicola LLC, she consults for established and emerging companies and public institutions…
Kevin has over 20 years experience in the grain and livestock industry. He is the publisher of The Van Trump Report, a daily agricultural newsletter that contains some of the best and most comprehensive agricultural…
Eric is the Chief Executive at Pipeline Foods. Eric started his career at The Pillsbury Company where he received his classic commodity merchandising training and became the Manager of Market Development for their Speciality Commodities…
Dr. Bruce German is a Professor and Chemist of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis and researches the role of fats and other components in the diet. He develops ways to…
Andy Daniels is a seasoned business executive and successful entrepreneur, an active angel investor, and serves on multiple governing boards with companies in the areas of venture capital, wealth management, agriculture, healthcare, technology innovation, commodity…
Rachel is a Senior Associate at The Context Network, a business management and strategy consulting firm providing services to the world’s leading agriculture, biotechnology and food companies. She was previously an International Sales & Project…
The founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri where he served as Emeritus President and Director for 10 years. Roger is currently Executive Director at World Food Center at University of California,…
Tom Adamitis is Managing Director at Yield Lab. He formerly served as the Global Vice President of Raw Materials and Energy Procurement for Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of the world’s largest consumer product companies. He supported…
Chris is the president of Eckert’s Inc., a family farm in southern Illinois. The Eckert’s farm has been in the family for seven generations. They farm 600 acres of fruit and vegetable crops as well…
Before joining OTMIR in 2016, Brian Buntaine worked for more than 15 years in the life sciences industry. He began his career as a lab manager at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2003, Brian joined…
Dr. Brendan A. Niemira is the Research Leader of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Intervention Technologies Research Unit. He leads a team of 30+ scientists, engineers, technicians, postdocs and students in Wyndmoor,…
Dr. Bob Whitaker joined Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in 2008 as Chief Science & Technology Officer, responsible for food safety, technology, supply chain management and sustainability. Bob has served on the Center for Produce Safety…
Berwick Settle is a Dairy Farm Management Specialist, managing a large scale dairy operation in Beijing, China.
Barry Goldman is the Vice President and Head of Discovery at Indigo. Using novel computational, sequencing and laboratory technologies, he is responsible for identifying the microbes that enable Indigo’s first generation of products. Barry brings more than…
Glenn Swanson serves as the President of Daniels Trading. He brings a well-rounded commodity and foreign exchange background to the firm’s day-to-day operations. Glenn has an in-depth knowledge of trading technology and the order execution…
Braden Hudye is a managing partner of The Hudye Group, a 3rd generation family owned company involved in Agriculture, Commercial Real Estate, Multi Family Residential Real Estate, Development Property, as well as other equity investments…
Ron is a biotech consultant primarily focused on agricultural biotechnology with knowledge of pharmaceutical product development. He has extensive, successful experience in product characterization of products improved through modern biotechnology Able to provide guidance at any level…
Engage With Our Food and Ag Network
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Resources and News
The World is Facing a New Food Crisis. Innovators Can Help
Today the world is facing the prospect of widespread food insecurity and starvation unlike any food crisis we have experienced in our lifetimes. According to the United Nations World Food program (WFP), “[m]illions of people across the world are at risk of being...
It’s a New Day in Food Ingredients, and That’s a Good Thing
Food producers are increasingly trying to make their ingredients more sustainable, healthy, and affordable. There are many ingredients today in all sorts of food products that achieve the exact opposite aim: they entail negative environmental effects, they can be...
How Aquaculture Factors into the Future of Food
The world’s population is growing rapidly. There are currently over 7.9 billion people on the planet, with this figure set to rise to around 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050. At the same time, world hunger remains a major problem; while steadily declining...
The Role That Agriculture is Playing in Decarbonization
The signatories of the Paris Climate Accord hope to limit average global temperature increases to between 1.5 to 2.0 C. degree by 2050 in the race to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. But if recent temperatures are any indication, we’re not off to a good...
As Food Prices Rise, the Need for Innovation is Becoming Acute
Inflation is everywhere and the increase in food prices is apparent “across the board,” as Miguel Patricio, chief executive of Kraft Heinz, told the BBC in the fall, adding that the rising cost of basic ingredients such as cereals and oils has led the company to up...
The Future of Crop Protection is Sustainable, and These are the Companies That Will Get Us There
Chemical fertilizer and insecticide have helped farms meet the growing demand for food worldwide, but not without negative consequences. Some insecticides escape into the air and cause illness. Often, they leach into groundwater, contaminating drinking water. Despite...
Crusonia Forum Brings Together the Changemakers Driving the Future of Food
“We are here to showcase a new wave of companies that are effectively applying technology to improve, disrupt, and transform agriculture, food and health for the better. We have no idea if a future Amazon is in our midst today, but looking back on it we really had no...
Specialty Crops: A Look at the Technology Innovators Moving the Industry Forward
From fruits and vegetables, to tree nuts and flowers, specialty crops represent a unique class of crops that require extra care, investment and attention to be profitable and sustainable. That’s in part because the products produced by this segment of the agriculture...
What’s Next for Plant-Based Protein? You’ll Be Surprised
Seemingly overnight, plant-based protein in everywhere. Impossible burgers are on the menu at restaurants across the country, Taco Bell is testing a taco made with synthetic chicken and plant-based milk producer Oatly just completed an IPO that valued the company at...
Specialty Crops: Industry Dynamics, Challenges and Opportunities
The specialty crops industry makes up a significant proportion of U.S.’s total agricultural output by value. However, producing specialty crops has its own set of unique challenges that call for similarly unique solutions. This panel focused on the specialty crop...
Why the Fly-Over States are Worth More than a Downward Glance
Intuitively we all know innovation is deflationary. Today, you probably wouldn’t spend more than $100 on a terabyte of digital storage. Not that long ago, some companies were fitting entire floors of office buildings and spending a million dollars or more to get that...
Food is Health: How to Access Uncorrelated Growth in 2020
“Food is Health” has driven the iSelect investment process since our start in 2014. Americans spend more than $1.5T each year on food and almost $2T on diet-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.1 We’re Focused on Companies...