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.
Vestaron, Inc.
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. Learn more… 
Benson Hill Biosystems, Inc.
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. Learn more…
Artemis
Agrilyst, Inc. is a SaaS platform that tracks and analyzes farm data, helping indoor farms optimize plant performance and reduce operating expenses. From 2016 to 2023, the global indoor farming market is projected to grow at a 24% CAGR, reaching $6.4 billion in size by 2023. On average, profitable indoor farms have been operating for at least 7 years. This is driven largely by an inability to understand, measure, and monitor the key cost drivers of production. Agrilyst’s SaaS system allows indoor farmers of all sizes to focus on the linkage all the way from sales forecasting to production planning, enabling them to reduce costs and increase profitability. Learn more…
OneClickship, Inc.
TradeLanes is a Techstars backed company that is redefining global trade. The Company offers a SaaS-based trade execution and automation platform that eliminates the manual tasks needed to ship ocean containers. With an easy-to-use web interface that 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. Learn more…
Harvest CROO, LLC
HarvestCROO is building the premier automation and robotics solution to solve the labor shortage crisis in specialty agriculture, starting with strawberries. Learn more…
Sentera, Inc.
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. Learn more…
Mercaris
Mercaris is a market data service and trading platform for organic, non-GMO, and other Identity Preserved (IP) agricultural commodities. Learn more…
PlantResponse Biotech
PlantResponse Biotech is a Madrid, Spain and Raleigh, NC based company that is developing and commercializing biologically related products that improve plant health and protect yield potential. Learn more…
Plastomics, Inc.
Plastomics has developed a proprietary genetic engineering model that can produce high performing crops through editing the chloroplast. Learn more…
Geltor, Inc.
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. Learn more…
HerdDogg, Inc.
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. Learn more…
Bonumose
Bonumose is commercializing low-glycemic index, natural sugars through a proprietary, cost-effective enzymatic process. Learn more…
Agrible, Inc.
Agrible sells software that connects the agricultural supply chain from field-to-market, providing critical sustainability,agronomic, and yield data. Learn more…
ProteoSense LLC
ProteoSense is building a biosensing platform for rapid, cheap and highly sensitive food safety testing. Learn more…
Holganix, LLC
Holganix produces organic plant probiotics that make soils and plants healthier, more resilient, and more productive. Learn more…
Kultevat, Inc.
Kultevat combines genetic breeding and chemical process engineering to produce natural rubber from the Russian dandelion in North America. Learn more…
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.
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
Investing at the Nexus of Food and Health
Almost three years ago, iSelect strategically refocused its investment thesis on identifying the synergies between food and healthcare. At the time, food and healthcare were two completely independent, siloed verticals. But, the fact is, the more that we understand...
Propagate Ventures: Planting New Revenue Streams for Farmers
As a company dedicated to regenerative agroforestry solutions, Propagate Ventures works with farmers and land managers to design and install tree-crop systems that work in tandem with existing farm operations. Its fruit, nut, and timber tree systems complement both...
What the Borden Bankruptcy Tells Us About the Future of Food
As a sailor, I learned a long time ago, it is always darkest before the dawn. Borden is bankrupt. And the dawn is coming.
System C: The Convergence of Food and Health
We’re here to talk about food system innovation. When we first started this conference, we talked about agtech, and as investors we also focus on healthcare and the convergence of healthcare and agriculture. Innovation is now being discussed as food system innovation. And, so we’ve invited you all and eager to have you participate in the conversation about how we make food improve health and life.
Creating a Food System That Works (for Everyone)
Innovation is what drives prices down. That's why we have TVs and computers that are both incredibly powerful and affordable, and why we have healthcare that is incredibly unaffordable. If food prices had risen at the same rate over the last 20 years that health care...
Why Bioavailability is Becoming the Next Buzzword in Agriculture
iSelect hosts a Deep Dive webinar on a novel innovation topic on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9 a.m. central. Our most recent session focused on bioavailability. By improving the bioavailability of the food we eat and our bodies' abilities to absorb...
Is Nutrient Reuse the Future of Sanitation?
What if the waste products we throw away every day could do more for us? What if it were possible to take organic waste, such as food scraps, and recycle it into fuel and fertilizer? We recently sat down with Dan Spracklin, CEO of SoMax Bioenergy, a company that is...
Recycling Nutrients for More Sustainable Agriculture and Animal Production
When it comes to sustainability in agriculture, there’s more to chicken waste than you might think. We recently sat down with Michael Lynch, CEO of Chonex, a nutrient recycling company focused on poultry manure, to talk about the technology his company is developing and how it all might change the way that the agriculture industry thinks about waste products.
Induction Food Systems: Industrial Heating That’s Precise, Efficient and On-Demand
Induction Food Systems helps food and beverage manufacturers improve efficiency and expand production with on-demand precision heating equipment. The company has harnessed electromagnetic energy to create the first scalable, precise, and efficient in-line heating...
Nutritious, Natural Sugars: A Conversation with Bonumose Founder Ed Rogers
iSelect managing director Mark McCall recently participated in a panel discussion at the Family Office Impact Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Hosted by Gitterman Wealth Management, Family Office Insights and 5th Element Group, the event was a...
How Digital Product Development is Reshaping the Food We Eat
iSelect hosts a Deep Dive webinar on a novel innovation topic on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 9 a.m. central. Our most recent session focused on how many food producers are now using digital technology to stay ahead of the curve and bring innovative new products to market faster than ever before. We spoke with iSelect venture associate, David Yocom, about what this all means for the foods we eat and the companies that make it all.
AgroSpheres: A New Approach to Pesticide Application that is Controlled, Targeted and Optimized
AgroSpheres is an agriculture technology startup in Virginia that is revolutionizing crop protection through environmentally friendly delivery platforms.
