May 15–17 | Memphis, TN

Davos on the Delta is the Premier Memphis Event in AgTech Innovation

Attracting the top 200 debuting entrepreneurs (50), early adopter customers (50), industry experts (50) and investors (50) to engage in a unique and exclusive conversation beginning with how new technologies and business models are redefining the paradigm of innovation in agriculture and extending to an exploration of future realities with an emphasis on the highest quality thought leadership and a “no agenda” agenda. Davos on the Delta will not only feature the hot topics and thought-provoking conversations to drive innovation forward, but assists in creating the actual relationships that allow those innovations to be brought into the future.

Last Year

Three of our portfolio companies (Agrible, Holganix & Kultevat) walked away with key new customers with major land holdings

Out of 100 attendees last year:

25 Ag industry leaders with advanced degrees

12 patent holders with 87 patents cumulatively

30 Agtech customers/suppliers

24 Ag Investors who have invested $74 million in 250 companies

Ag entrepreneurs who’ve exited $410 million in total exit value

24 ag entrepreneurs who have founded 44 startups

900 years of industry experience collectively

In summary, in 2017 startups gained access to a uniquely engaged group of 200 individuals driving the future of agricultural innovation. Startups found new customers, advisors and capital that are shaping their progress today.

This Year

The first 20 start-ups to sign up for Davos on the Delta will gain access to a startup booth, featured slots during presentation panels, a 10-15 minute opportunity to pitch to at least 50 ag-focused investors and 50 potential customers, and opportunities to network privately with curated strategic investor groups.

We are doubling our hand-picked list of attendees from 100 to 200 agriculture experts constituting 50 entrepreneurs/startups, 50 early adopter customers, 50 investors and 50 industry experts. It is a uniquely and intentionally diverse group that enables startups (and all parties) to walk away with important strategic relationships.

This year’s agenda will incorporate agriculture’s hottest topics with a particular focus on market disruption in the next 15-20 years. Panels and keynote speakers will provide unique perspective into what industry leaders think of the future of agriculture, while private side meetings coordinated by the Davos on the Delta Hospitality Team will enable attendees to take thoughts and put them into action.

We look forward to seeing you at Davos on the Delta this May!

Davos on the Delta is a unique and refreshing event that should be a MUST show for anyone interested in understanding and or influencing Ag innovation! As an agtech entrepreneur, the event was very useful in helping me communicate our product innovation to an engaged group of agtech investors and innovative farmers. We were able to collaborate with the right people who could help us move our technology forward!

Barret Ersek

CEO & Founder, Holganix

Consideration

With 2021 well underway and with public markets still strong, we think it is an important time to highlight some of the key private market, venture investment themes that iSelect fund has identified for the year. We believe technologies transforming the Agriculture, Food and Wellness markets will flourish, with a focus on four areas: technologies that enable better food choices to drive better health outcomes, technologies that drive better, more profitable farm operations, technologies that drive the Consumerization of Healthcare, and biome-based treatment technologies. At iSelect, we invest for impact AND performance. We offer qualified investors access to emerging growth companies through our national venture capital strategy. Our unique structure allows our investors to continue to invest in these companies as they develop.

Timing

Why is now the right time for venture? The answer is that now is not explicitly the right time. Venture is something we need in our economy at all times. Now is not better than any other particular time. The question is, why ever stop? When we look at the challenges we’re facing in food and healthcare the reality is there is someone, somewhere who has an insight about how to build a product that will solve those problems. And if they put the right resources to it, they will succeed. As long as we need new technology to make life better or make our lives more enjoyable, we need venture capital to help fuel those entrepreneurs.

What is iSelect as a product?

iSelect is a very unique product, but when you break it into its parts it’s fairly easy to understand. On the front end we’re a traditional venture capital fund. We have a diligence process. We have an investment process. We have categories of industries where we have focus and real expertise, and we invest in companies in those areas that meet requirements for the fund. On the back end we’re unique in that we don’t raise a large amount of capital at one time and deploy it over the life of our fund. Each deal that we bring onto the fund, our investors have to prove and determine to invest in that deal. We have to constantly prove our diligence standards. It’s accessible, transparent and easy for investors to come in and see our comprehensive process.

What is the ideal iSelect company?

We are looking for founders that are passionate and we want the problem they’re trying to solve to be big, real, and painful. We want the solution to be revolutionary and we want our capital to be able to help them solve that problem. We want to know that they have customers involved and that the solution they’ve come up with actually meets those customers’ and market needs. And we want the team to be capital efficient with the money they’re spending.

What does the ideal iSelect company look like?

We’re looking for a company that has an opportunity to have a 10x return to our investment or greater in a period of three to seven years. What excites us at iSelect are companies that are solving big problems. We want companies that are going to be the Monsantos of the future. Not just in the size and the scope, but the impact they have on people’s lives. We want to create positive impacts on people’s lives, so we invest in areas like agricultural production and areas like producing healthy foods for our kids. They are problems that impact real people’s lives on a daily basis. That’s what we’re trying to do at iSelect. We’re trying to solve the big problems out there. Find ways to bring capital to the entrepreneurs who are the real heroes out there getting up every morning, beating away at these things that are problems that you and me and everyone else faces in their everyday lives.

What is iSelect?

iSelect is a venture capital firm. What that means is we look at hundreds and hundreds of different companies and we apply tough diligence standards to each of them, looking at whether the team has a good plan for growing the business, whether the team is qualified and credible, and more. We do that to resolve the few who provide the best opportunities for investors. And then iSelect takes that smaller set of investments and goes to investors who are interested in venture capital and provides a way for them to invest in these companies, either individually or all at once. We co-invest alongside other venture capitalists. We source transactions through to an exit where the company would become public or get bought. And we manage that whole investment process on behalf of our investors.