Agriculture will arguably be one of the most important industries of the 21st century.
The global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, up from 7.3 billion today, and current projections indicate that we will need to grow twice as much food by 2050.
What’s more, the powers that be in the agriculture industry are taking on a different role than they have played in the past. Gone are the days when we could expect big, industry-shaping innovation to come out of corporate R&D departments. With the recent mega-mergers, there just isn’t enough competition anymore. The market has changed to allow entrepreneurship to set the pace for agricultural innovation.
iSelect invests in the entrepreneurs making those innovations happen.
From improvements in nutritional value, to better resource efficiency, to improved yield, to better cost controls, many areas of the agriculture industry are ripe for disruption. It’s happening already, with harvesting automation systems, sensor-based farm management tools and other advanced technologies already appearing on the increasingly-sophisticated market for farm equipment.
There is now an enormous market for technologies that increase yield, improve nutrition, and bring resource efficiency to the agriculture market.
iSelect focuses on early-stage agriculture companies that are poised to help push the next agricultural revolution forward. This includes firms that focus on increasing yield, crop analytics, alternative commodity production, biological plant and soil inputs, and the disruption of the agricultural supply chain.
Join our Agriculture market network.
Selection Team
Chas Eggert
Agriculture Team, Healthcare Team, Resource Efficiency Team
Charles R. (Chas) Eggert has 40 years of experience in the specialty chemicals industry with a proven track record of creating value for startups and large global businesses. Chas is an operating partner focused on specialty chemical investments with A …
Andrew Daniels
Andy Daniels is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Daniels Trading. He oversees the daily operations of the firm, while maintaining his own trading, as well as advising several selected, long-established customers. In everything he does, Andy s …
Glen Swanson
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 process that …
Braden Hudye
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 in both the Un …
Roger Beachy
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, Davis and …
Jim von der Heydt
Currently serving as President and Founder of Inno-Ventures, a consulting firm dedicated to strategic planning for early stage companies Jim is an innovative business leader with a unique background in highly competitive global industries. After a 20+ …
iSelect Companies
Agrible sells software that connects the agricultural supply chain from field-to-market, providing critical sustainability, agronomic, and yield data. In an era when consumers demand to know what is grown (e.g., GMO vs non-GMO) and how it is grown (e.g., sustainable, organic, etc.), Agrible is the only solution that provides verifiable visibility from what goes in the ground to what goes in the package, with implications on how agricultural products are grown, traded, transported, processed, and labeled.
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Holganix produces and sells 100% organic plant probiotics that significantly reduce the need for fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and water while improving plant vibrancy and yield.
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ProteoSense is commercializing a proprietary biosensor for food safety testing. Current tests require expensive, specialized equipment and personnel, take anywhere from 12-hours to days, and often require food to be placed on hold until results are available. ProteoSense’s high-sensitivity, portable system detects foodborne pathogens in less than 2-hours, reducing test time from days to minutes, an important distinction for perishable foods with a limited shelf life.
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Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc., based in Durham, NC, with offices in St. Louis, MO, is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on the development of traits to increase intrinsic crop yield, principally by enhancing photosynthetic efficiency. By combining cloud computing, data analytics and plant biology, Benson Hill’s CropOS™ is a cognitive engine that provides decision support to increase productivity, improve resource utilization and enhance the nutritional properties of crops. For more information, see http://bensonhillbio.com/about/.
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Kultevat, Inc., based in St. Louis, MO, combines genetic breeding and chemical process engineering to produce natural rubber from Russian dandelions. There is a strong need to develop a domestic source of natural rubber. Russian dandelions can be grown across wide swaths of the U.S., and produce rubber that matches the characteristics of rubber derived from rubber trees.
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Read More from iSelect
AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer and user of malt barley, partners with agriculture technology firm Agrible
Champaign, Ill., Sept. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) and Agrible, Inc. today announce a global partnership to improve barley production while minimizing environmental impact. The two companies are joining forces to help farmers around...
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10+ Questions Facing Agriculture and Where to Find the Answers
The agriculture industry is facing a series of intertwined, complex issues over the next several decades. Conventional wisdom suggests that we face a critical supply shortage driven by four key questions: Can we produce enough food? The world’s population will...
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iSelect and Agriculture: Why We’re Investing
So we're focused on four sectors: agriculture, healthcare, energy, and technology. We've picked those four because we really do think that they have the ability to be game-changing globally for the world. If we look at agriculture, we are at one of the most complex...
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Dr. Todd Mockler on Plant Science, Genomics, and the Future of Food
Dr. Todd Mockler is one of the world’s leading experts on plant genetics and has dedicated his career to better understanding how the genetic code of different types of plants impacts their behavior and responses. As a member and principal investigator with the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, his research has focused on the development of plant genomic tools, with the end goal of improving crop performance and yield.
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ProteoSense: Do You Really Know What’s in Your Food?
Food safety represents a major new front in consumer safety and public health. The risk of foodborne illness isn’t just for the history books, and thanks to recent cases such as those that struck national brands like Chipotle, Chi-Chi’s, Peter Pan Peanut Butter and...
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BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Benson Hill Biosystems Raises $25m Series B, Reveals CRISPR 2.0 – AgFunderNews
Benson Hill Biosystems has identified a more precise and efficient gene-editing tool than CRISPR Cas-9, according to Matt Crisp, CEO.Source: BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Benson Hill Biosystems Raises $25m Series B, Reveals CRISPR 2.0 -...
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Meet the Companies That Are Revolutionizing Organics
The market for organics is changing, fast. According to a new report published this week in The Wall Street Journal, sales of organic crops are soaring, but the prices paid for those products are dropping steadily due to increased imports and new competition in the...
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Holganix for Property Managers: Stronger Turf, Better Profits
Green, LEED, and environmental sustainability are all becoming increasingly important to tenants and customers. Simultaneously, how a property looks, from the grass to the ornamental plants, also carries weight in the leasing decision. But, landscaping is a cost...
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Benson Hill Biosystems and the Changing Face of Agriculture Technology
The global population is booming, diets are shifting and urbanization is rising. Never has so much been asked of agriculture to meet the needs of our society. Never have the external risks to agriculture advancement been greater, whether from changing climate, limited...
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Holganix: Probiotics Are Changing Agriculture In a Big Way
It’s often the smallest things that make the biggest differences in our lives. Consider probiotics, for instance. Probiotics are living organisms—typically bacteria, yeasts and other microorganisms—that work in partnership with the human body to improve our health. Unlike bacteria that can cause disease, these are often called “good” or “helpful” bacteria because of the benefits they provide.
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