Connecting Innovators, Investors, Industry Professionals and Early Adopter Customers
From improvements in nutritional
Gone are the days when big, industry-shaping innovations came out of corporate R&D departments. With the recent mega-mergers in agriculture, the market has changed to allow entrepreneurship to set the pace for food and agricultural innovation.
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“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.
HarvestCROO is building the premier automation and robotics solution to solve the labor shortage crisis in specialty agriculture, starting with strawberries.
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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.
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Geltor designs animal-free recombinant proteins from proprietary cellular factories in bulk and at low cost for consumer and technical products.
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Bonumose is commercializing low-glycemic index, natural sugars through a proprietary, cost-effective enzymatic process.
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Agrilyst is a software company making indoor farming profitable, enabling growers to drive the indoor farming revolution.
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Agrible sells software that connects the agricultural supply chain from field-to-market, providing critical sustainability,agronomic, and yield data.
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ProteoSense is building a biosensing platform for rapid, cheap and highly sensitive food safety testing.
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Benson Hill is a crop improvement company that empowers innovators with a revolutionary platform to tap the natural genetic diversity of plants and develop healthier and more sustainable food choices.
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Holganix produces organic plant probiotics that make soils and plants healthier, more resilient, and more productive.
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Kultevat combines genetic breeding and chemical process engineering to produce natural rubber from the Russian dandelion in North America.
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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 operation in East Central Ill …
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 every aspect of the business, …
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 the ethanol industry. He has ov …
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 manipul …
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 a …
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 Co-founder of Farmergy, Inc. and serves as its …
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 across th …
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 information in the world from some o …
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 Group. In 1988, …
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 assess health and metabolism in response to foods. M …
Alex is the Co-founder of Geltor and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Prior to co-founding Geltor, Alex obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, where his research led him to launch the Company. In addition, Alex holds a …
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 …
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 …
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 Manager …
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 …
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 ABI’s global brewery f …
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 as run a 400-seat restaurant and a 20,000 square foot …
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 Sigma-Aldrich where he worked as a research and …
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, PA in developing too …
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 (CPS) Bo …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
Engage With Our Food and Ag Network
Join Our Food & Agriculture Innovation Network.
Join the over 5,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and industry professionals driving the future of food and agriculture.
Resources and News
Automating the Harvest, One Strawberry at a Time
What the Latest Round of Food Contamination Recalls Say About Ag Innovation
It’s happened again. Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture announced a nationwide recall of more than 12 million pounds of raw beef due to new concerns over possible salmonella contamination.
Microsoft is Coming for Agriculture. Is That a Good Thing?
Here’s a headline I didn’t expect to see: “Microsoft Bringing AI to Ag.” From the author of that headline in Farm Journal: “Standing before a crowd of farmers at the 2018 Farm Journal AgTech Expo, keynote speaker Josh Henretig voiced what he believed a lot of farmers were thinking.
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Food 2.0: Genetic Engineering Our Way to the High-Performing Crops of Tomorrow
Mars Taps Benson Hill’s Crop Design Platform to Help Protect Cacao from Climate Change
Bonumose: U.S. Patent to be Issued for “Enzymatic Production of D-Tagatose”
On September 21, 2018, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued Bonumose LLC a Notice of Allowance on its patent application for “Enzymatic Production of D-Tagatose.” The USPTO’s action recognizes the importance of Bonumose’s unique process for producing high-yields of low-cost tagatose from starch.
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The 25 Most Innovative AgTech Startups In 2018
Food Insecurity Is the Biggest Threat to Life On Earth, Except That it Isn’t
MIT OpenAg Is the Future of Agriculture. Here’s How We’re Helping
The MIT Media Lab is reimagining the food supply. It’s called the Open Agriculture Initiative (OpenAg) and it is staffed by a team of researchers that has been working since 2014 to create healthier, more engaging, and more inventive future food systems.
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Why It Matters That We’re Talking About Gender Discrimination in Agriculture
Agrifood Conversations, a New Agriculture Innovation Webinar Series
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.
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Agrilyst: Developing New Tools to Help Indoor Farmers Thrive
Based in Brooklyn, NY, Agrilyst’s SaaS-based platform provides indoor farmers with data-driven insights to make more profitable production decisions, optimizing labor cost efficiency and improving crop yield. With Agrilyst, indoor growers create seeding plans, schedule harvests, assign tasks, manage climate and nutrient density, and forecast yield, sales, and varietal performance.
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