
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.
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.

As deputy director of The Nature Conservancy’s Regenerative Grazing Lands strategy in North America, William leads on-the-ground testing and research of improved ranch management frameworks and tools, and he regularly communicates results with ranchers, land…

As the director of innovation at Beck’s Hybrids, Brad Fruth works to deliver value to the American farmer. For more than 18 years, he has dedicated his days (and nights) to delivering the successful convergence…

Cheryl Van Dyne is an experienced regulatory affairs professional with specializations in the biotech food, feed, excipient, cosmetic, chemical, and oilfield industries. After 22 years at CP Kelco as Director of Global Regulatory Affairs, Cheryl…

Renée Vassilos is The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Agriculture Innovation. She manages TNC’s investments in innovative companies that will help scale regenerative agriculture production practices. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, Renée spent nearly a…
Join Our Food & Agriculture Innovation Network.
Join the over 9,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals driving the future of food and agriculture.
Resources and News

Why We Invested: Agriwebb
We think there’s a huge amount of opportunity for them to use their growing global network in this growing digital verification set to drive livestock production to meet the needs of the future, where animal protein production will continue to be a part of the food system but do so more sustainably and more ethically.

Feeding 10 Billion: What Has To Change?
10 Billion by 2050 The world’s population is rapidly increasing, and many experts and analysts are pointing out that we may not be able to feed the world’s population in several decades. According to the U.N., the world’s population will reach 9.8 billion by 2050....

Bond Pet Foods: Precision Fermentation of Alt Protein
There’s been increasing conversation in the food world about non-animal-sourced meat products. People are beginning to use alternative proteins for various applications, from hamburger substitutes to high-class cuisine. But that’s not all that non-animal-based meat is...

War in Ukraine: How AgTech Innovation Combats Global Food Security Challenges
Agricultural innovation plays a critical role in maintaining food security and improving the well-being of people across the globe. As the world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, food needs will escalate further. However, agricultural production...

How Ag Companies are Impacting Carbon Capture Efforts
As more and more efforts are directed towards challenging climate change worldwide, companies at home in the U.S. are doing their part to direct the power of entrepreneurial farmers towards the problem. Companies like Indigo Ag are investing millions of dollars to...

What the Food System Needs Now? A Real Connection Between Capital and the Farm
The trick with technology is less about technology and more about adoption. When I was a young engineer at McDonnell Douglas, we developed the first bunker buster bomb in 30 days, taking a cannon barrel, turning it down and building this new design back in ‘91, a...

Investment Roadmap: What We Target and Avoid
Harnessing the Force of Creative Destruction: A Thesis in "Food is Health" We believe in the power of innovation to make it better. Our investment focus is on the key lever points where a specific innovation drives consumer adoption, lowers cost, and drives...

The Mississippi River is Drying up, and That Should Concern Us All
I love rivers. I grew up in Louisiana on the Mississippi River. Our cotton fields bordered the levee. When I was working in those fields I would always eat my lunch on the levee so I could watch the massive river rolling by peacefully. This week I have friends posting...

A Look Inside the Future of Carbon MRV in Agriculture
As the world strives for net-zero carbon emissions as a global society, the agriculture industry has been marked as a key sector for improvement. All of the decisions we make as a culture about our food choices and how we choose to grow our food impact our ecosystem...

We Solved Y2K, We’ll Solve #FoodIsHealth, Innovation is Better
When faced with the challenge of Y2K, the computer industry realized innovation is better. The turn of the millennium in 2000 was supposed to be an exciting event. Instead, for the IT and internet communities, it was a looming disaster. Thanks to a widespread...

Are 87,000 IRS Agents Aren’t Going to Solve America’s Problems?
The IRS is about to hire as many as 87,000 new agents thanks to $80 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. It’s an attempt to correct years of underfunding at the agency. Maybe Innovation is Better. “There are a bunch of problems. They have about 8...

Deep Dive: Precision Fermentation
What the Future Holds for Precision Fermentation: A Deep Dive Recap Humans have harnessed the biochemical process of fermentation for millennia, with the oldest traces dating back to more than 9,000 years ago. Although we might not always think of our predecessors as...