Governor Eric J. Holcomb today joined local officials and leaders and employees of Blue Buffalo, the nation’s leading natural pet food company, as they announced plans to expand the company’s operations in Richmond, creating 50-60 new jobs by the end of 2024.
“General Mills and Blue Buffalo are helping drive Richmond’s economy forward, investing in the East Central region and providing quality career opportunities for Hoosiers,” said Sec. Chambers. “The company is making a change economically while being a good corporate citizen, making changes and fulfilling global responsibility commitments to better our planet, people, community and food.”
Blue Buffalo, General Mills’ (NYSE: GIS) fastest growing global platform, will invest $200 million over two years to grow its Indiana operations, constructing and equipping a 169,000-square-foot addition to expand its processing operations and warehouse capacity. The expansion will increase the building’s footprint by more than 40 percent by adding another extruder line, three new packaging lines and an associated mix and transfer system, increasing its production of high-quality, natural dog and cat food, servicing customers across the U.S. and Canada. The company broke ground today and plans to complete the expansion by the end of 2024.
Today’s announcement comes just four years after General Mills celebrated the grand opening of its Blue Buffalo Richmond facility, a $200 million investment. The company employs more than 180 full-time associates in Wayne County and plans to hire additional production staff later this year to support its growth.
“The expansion of Blue Buffalo here in Richmond is indicative of our continued growth and leadership in the industry and will set us up to serve pets and pet parents for years to come,” said Terry Abner, plant manager at the Blue Buffalo Richmond plant. “Today marks the culmination of strong collaboration across local, state and agency partners and we’re eager to see this to fruition in the fall of 2024 when the lines will go online, and we’ll have 50-60 new team members to welcome into our plant community.”
Founded in 2003, Blue Buffalo offers a full portfolio of high-quality, natural food and treats that both dogs and cats love. It was founded on the simple idea: “Love them like family. Feed them like family.” BLUE Life Protection Formula, the brand’s flagship formula, launched a whole new way of feeding pets. The Blue Buffalo portfolio has grown to include a full range of products for all life stages, including BLUE Wilderness, BLUE Basics, BLUE Freedom, BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet, and more. Blue Buffalo was acquired by General Mills in 2018.
Blue Buffalo first announced plans to locate in Wayne County, Indiana, in 2016, establishing a 400,000-square-foot facility to produce BLUE Life Protection Formula, Wilderness, True Solutions, Basics and Freedom brands of dry dog and cat food.
“Blue Buffalo has established a strong professional relationship with local and state officials, and an impactful relationship with our community,” said Richmond Mayor Snow. “Their growth is a result of dedication to the quality of their product, and their positive business model which promotes a healthy and productive work environment. This investment is very meaningful to our local economy, and I am confident more success lies ahead.”
Based on the company’s job creation plans, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation committed an investment in Heartland Pet Food Manufacturing Indiana (dba Blue Buffalo) of up to $600,000 in the form of incentive-based tax credits. The IEDC also committed an investment of up to $100,000 in Hoosier Business Investment tax credits and up to $200,000 in Manufacturing Readiness Grants, which are designed to help companies invest in smart manufacturing and new technologies. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning the company is eligible to claim incentives once Hoosiers are hired. Wayne County will consider additional incentives to support the project.
The U.S. Department of Agrictulture estimates that 13.5 million households – more than 10% of the population – experience food insecurity. Innovation, especially in the category of agtech, holds tremendous promise to lower that number. Today we are joined by AgriNovus Indiana Senior Director of Innovation, Geoff Zentz, to announce the launch of the 2023 HungerTech Challenge. They talk about what this year’s challenge entails, the intersection of doing good and doing well and what’s at stake for this year’s winning team (hint: it includes a $25K prize to accelerate their solution). They also dive into the role of innovation to eliminate food insecurity, not needing to know food or agriculture to solve this problem and the importance of food and nutrition to drive better health outcomes.
Are you ready to take on the 2023 HungerTech Challenge or do you want to learn more about AgriNovus’ work in this space? Click here.
Special thank you to Elevance Health – our presenting sponsor of The HungerTech Challenge – for their commitment to tackling food insecurity. Hear Dr. Shantanu Agrawal’s episode of Agbioscience here.
Company Applying Innovation to Power Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines with Renewable Fuels
Chicago-based ClearFlame Engine Technologies has raised $30 million in Series B funding to bring to market innovative solutions that power heavy-duty engines with clean, renewable fuels and create a viable business solution to reduce carbon and soot.
The latest investments were led by Mercuria Energy Group, one of the world’s largest privately held energy and commodities companies, with Mercuria and Breakthrough Energy Ventures both making second investments. New investors, including mining corporation Rio Tinto, and WIND Ventures, the strategic venture arm of Copec, one of Latin America’s leading mobility and energy companies, see ClearFlame as part of a holistic suite of strategies to advance environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
“ClearFlame continues gaining momentum with technology that heavy-duty equipment users can deploy to more quickly and affordably meet critical ESG goals,” said BJ Johnson, ClearFlame Chief Executive Officer and company co-founder. “Federal Department of Energy funding moved us from concept to patent. Series A funding propelled us from patent to pilot. This latest investment round can accelerate us from pilot to proven product in multiple markets, starting with long-haul trucks.”
The company’s patented technology runs on a range of renewable liquid fuels. It can efficiently adapt to markets like long-haul trucking, offering the same power, durability and performance as today’s diesel engines while readily integrating into existing manufacturing, fueling, maintenance and repair ecosystems. In pursuit of penetrating the more than $200 billion global trucking market, the company is piloting five trucks in collaboration with some of the largest fleet operators in North America. It is also exploring partnerships and applications for the mining, agriculture, and power generation sectors.
“Mercuria was an early adopter of various environmental products in its portfolio and has committed more than fifty percent of all new investments to the energy transition,” said Boris Bystrov of Mercuria. “Mercuria’s strategic investment in ClearFlame’s technology reflects the company’s continued commitment to renewable fuels as part of the energy transition and its belief that ClearFlame’s technology can economically decarbonize the heavy-duty industry by utilizing the existing liquid fueling infrastructure.”
“The diesel engine is the backbone of heavy industry and its advantages make it hard for clean alternatives to compete,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “ClearFlame has pulled together a new generation of entrepreneurs and veteran engineering talent that have unlocked a viable, cutting-edge solution.”
Brian Walsh of WIND Ventures noted, “We are excited to partner with ClearFlame as they expand into mining, which is a key market for Copec in Latin America. The mining sector is a heavy user of diesel fuel and ClearFlame’s technology can likely enable a rapid transition to methanol fuel for lower carbon emissions while maintaining diesel-like performance.”
Johnson and ClearFlame Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Julie Blumreiter dedicated their doctoral research at Stanford University to finding solutions to mitigate climate change and achieve carbon reduction goals by freeing heavy-duty diesel engines from their reliance on fossil fuels. Diesel fuel consumption accounts for approximately 26% of overall CO2 emissions from the U.S. transportation sector. While electric powertrains face significant barriers for heavy-duty applications, the technology ClearFlame developed can meet heavy-duty performance requirements while offering better lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reduction than EV by nearly 61% using low-soot renewable fuels. A total cost of ownership study prepared by industry analysts Gladstein, Neandross, and Associates found that using ClearFlame engines would reduce lifetime ownership costs for fleet operators.
“The effort to achieve a sustainable clean energy and fossil-free future has to be inclusive and comprehensive,” noted Blumreiter. “We welcome all partners who see our innovation as a means to make tomorrow’s ESG goals today’s realities.”
Growing an economy is part art and part science. It requires a bold vision, deep understanding of a region’s assets and an ability to unite leaders across business, academia and government, all to take action and drive growth. Today we are joined by Melina Kennedy, CEO of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, to learn how a former lawyer, deputy mayor and leader at Cummins came into her new role last month. She talks about the uniqueness of CICP as an organization, serving the community in an impactful way and being a proponent for innovation.
How does Indiana continue to grow and what is the role of agbioscience in that story? Melina also talks about refusing to sit still, looking up and out and seeing what’s ahead before it comes.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
Indianapolis, IN
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET
50 South Capital Advisors invites you to save the date for the fifth annual NLF Summit on Thursday, July 13, 2023. We will provide an update on the NLF portfolio as well as lead a series of presentations with leading venture capitalists and thought leaders to discuss the state of innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital in Indiana. For additional detail on the Next Level Fund, www.nextlevelindianafund.com.
Event invitation and detailed agenda for the NLF Summit are forthcoming.
Similar to previous years, the NLF Summit will be scheduled in coordination with the Innovation Showcase hosted by the Venture Club of Indianaand Techpoint.
Direct any inquiries to [email protected]
55 Monument Circle, 7th Floor
Indianapolis, IN, 46204
The cross-sector innovation conference Rally will debut in Indianapolis at the Indiana Convention Center on August 29-31, event founding partner Elevate Ventures announced today. Rally was developed to bring together companies, universities, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world to forge the creative, cross-sector collisions that power innovation, and generate new ideas and great companies across disparate stakeholders.
Rally will feature a pitch competition awarding five $1 million cash prize investments, keynotes, content sessions featuring more than 200 speakers, face-to-face investor meetups, workshops and an innovation demo arena. Ticket sales launched on March 15.
“Today is the lowest rate of change we will ever experience. Now, more than ever, innovation requires stakeholders to come together cross-sector. The technologies we will enjoy tomorrow will not come from siloed thinking; rather, they’ll be birthed from intentional collaboration among the private sector, public sector and disparate stakeholders. This is how the next billion-dollar ideas will be born,” said Christopher Day, CEO of Elevate Ventures and Rally visionary.
Entrepreneurship across the U.S. is booming, and Rally will feed that upward trend. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics, total U.S. business applications doubled in 2020 compared to recent years. In 2021 alone, a record-breaking 5.4 million new business applications were filed; 5.1 million were filed in 2022, illustrating post-pandemic stabilization.
Rally will include six innovation studios to guide learning and connection-building:
Software
Healthcare
Ag & Food
HardTech
SportsTech
Entrepreneurship
Registrants will be made up of entrepreneurs; venture capitalists and investors; industry and university thought leaders; legislators; and business leaders and advisors involved in engineering, marketing, sales, operations, customer success and finance — all of whom have a major role in powering cross-sector innovation.
Rally is produced in partnership with Elevate Ventures and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, with supporting sponsors High Alpha, AgriNovus Indiana, Powderkeg, Sagamore Institute, The Heritage Group, Indiana Health Industry Forum, Butler University and others.
AgriNovus Indiana-commissioned study shows gains across food, animal health, plant science, agtech and production agriculture
AgriNovus Indiana, an initiative to grow the state’s agbioscience economy, released new research today that found Indiana’s agbioscience sector directly contributes more than $58 billion to Indiana’s economy – an increase of more than $6 billion since 2018.
Conducted by TEConomy Partners, the study entitled Innovative Agbioscience in Indiana: 2021 Economic Impacts Revisited, identified that the growth across Indiana’s agbioscience economy since 2018 marked the fastest-growing time for the industry since measurements to quantify it began in 2012.
“The agbioscience economy is the only economy in the world that touches every person on the planet given it centers on food,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana. “The growth this research identifies represents the tremendous gains Indiana’s agbioscience innovators are advancing to meet global demand across food, animal health, plant science and agtech.”
According to the study, Indiana’s agbioscience economy posted growth during the period from 2018 to 2021, including:
Value-Added Food and Nutrition – increased 2 percent during the period and remains the largest component of the state’s agbioscience economy with $29.9 billion in output.
Animal Health and Nutrition – increased 27.3 percent to $5.5 billion, making it the fastest-growing innovation-based platform of Indiana’s agbioscience economy over the last decade.
Agricultural Equipment, Technologies andSystems – increased 16.8 percent to $2.2 billion, maintaining upward momentum as the second-fastest growing platform since 2012.
Plant Science and Crop Protection – increased 7.2 percent to $3.3 billion and posted positive growth for the first time since 2012.
“From a global pandemic to broken supply chains to rising inflation, Indiana’s agbioscience sector has faced many headwinds since economic progress was last measured,” said Deborah Cummings, principal and managing director for TEConomy Partners, LLC. “This update identifies sound growth across the four innovation-based platforms as well as production agriculture and should come as encouraging news as the sector continues on its upward growth trajectory.”
The study shows the total economic impact of agbioscience in Indiana, including its direct output and its indirect and induced impact on other industries, grew from $76 billion in 2018 to $91 billion in 2021. Agbioscience employment in Indiana grew 7.5 percent from 2018 to 2021 and average wages of agbioscience jobs (excluding farm proprietors) topped $69,000 – a total that is more than three percent higher than the average 2021 private-sector wage in the state.
The full study, Innovative Agbioscience in Indiana: 2021 Economic Impacts Revisited, is available here. You can also register to attend one of AgriNovus Indiana’s Regional Economic Updates as we discuss recommendations and how we, as a community, can continue to drive this economy forward. RSVP here.
Corteva Inc. (NYSE: CTVA), Bunge (NYSE:BG) and Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX), announced today a commercial collaboration to introduce proprietary winter canola hybrids that produce plant-based oil with a lower carbon profile. The goal is to increase the availability of vegetable oil feedstocks primarily for the growing domestic renewable fuels market. The companies plan to introduce the winter canola crop into the southern United States with an intention to create a new revenue opportunity for farmers with a sustainable crop rotation.
The proprietary winter canola hybrids from Corteva can be used in a double crop system, following soybeans or cotton. “We’re pleased to work with Bunge and Chevron to bring a new option in the southern U.S. that will deliver solutions for farmers to increase productivity and sustainability on their acres, as well as contribute to the need for renewable and less carbon-intensive fuel options,” said Chuck Magro, CEO, Corteva Agriscience.
Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables, the joint venture between Bunge and Chevron, plans to contract with farmers to purchase the harvested winter canola crop and use the oil to produce renewable fuel. In addition to providing farmers a new income opportunity, adding winter canola to a rotation provides a cover crop which can enhance soil health by holding more nutrients, water, and carbon in the soil. A pilot program is expected to be conducted in the 2022-23 growing season to fine-tune best management practices.
“Rotational cover crops play a key role in our strategy to continue to develop next generation lower carbon feedstocks. As a leader in oilseed processing, we are pleased to work together with Corteva and Chevron to bring this crop innovation to farmers and process it into sustainable solutions for consumers. This is another step in our commitment to creating clear paths to support the decarbonization of the industry,” said Greg Heckman, Bunge CEO.
The companies plan to continue to explore opportunities to sustainably improve farming options and produce lower carbon renewable fuels.
“Chevron is committed to advancing a lower-carbon energy future, and we recognize renewable fuels like biodiesel and renewable diesel are a solution to do that,” said Kevin Lucke, President of Chevron Renewable Energy Group. “Feedstock innovation is a critical element of the growth of the renewable fuels industry, and innovative solutions like double-crop winter canola not only benefit the lower-carbon future, but also benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.”
Athian (athian.ai), the world’s first cloud-based carbon marketplace for the livestock industry, announces a seed investment from Tyson
Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, Inc., one of the world’s largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. This latest investment from Tyson Ventures, long with previous investments from Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE: ELAN) and
Newtrient LLC, will fast-track the launch of the first-of-its kind transactional carbon credit inset program for the livestock sector that will provide producers economic incentives for on-farm sustainability practices, while helping improve the sustainability of the food system and reduce climate warming.
“This investment from Tyson Ventures propels the development of our carbon marketplace platform forward,” said Paul Myer, CEO of Athian. “We now have investors from each segment of the livestock production value chain – farmers, packers, processors, and animal health companies – supporting sustainability practices, including the economic aspect of sustainability, which has been left out of the conversation for far too long. While no single company can solve the challenge of climate change alone, we can work together to make meaningful impacts. We will launch Athian’s carbon credit insetting platform in the second half of 2023 so that livestock farmers who prioritize measurable carbon management practices will be able to, for the first time, earn revenue to fund those practices.”
Athian’s key mission is to help the beef and dairy value chains capture and claim carbon credits earned through sustainability efforts by aggregating, validating, and certifying, greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and monetizing those reductions through the sale of
carbon credits. Athian aggregates data for producers of all sizes through a connected carbon marketplace, allowing beef and dairy producers to monetize and capture value from sustainability efforts, such as GHG reductions. When it goes to market later this year,
Athian’s carbon credit insetting platform will allow livestock farmers who implement sustainable practices the ability to earn revenue to fund those practices.
“Our vision is to be the platform that enables the livestock industry to meet its sustainability goals by empowering producers to implement on-farm practice changes that will move the needle on climate change,” said Athian’s Myer. “Climate change presents a profound systemic challenge to the livestock industry. Athian is positioned to work with market leading companies to quantify, gain third party certification for and reward farmers for a range of sustainability practices executed at the farm level.”
Rahul Ray, Investment Lead for Tyson Ventures, will be an observer to the Athian Board of Directors in connection with this investment.
Companies and governments across the world have made commitments to decarbonization; but one of the key technologies, electrification, is still years away from being applicable to the high-horsepower, high-torque requirements of production agriculture. BJ Johnson, founder and CEO of ClearFlame Engine Technologies, has developed a technology to transform high-horsepower diesel engines to run on 100% ethanol. He joins this week to talk about ClearFlame starting as an academic exercise and accelerating into a high commercial-potential product, the economic and environmental impact of this innovation and the necessary long-term focus on net positive emissions. BJ also dives into ClearFlame’s collaboration with Beck’s Hybrids, their innovation as one tool for the overall sustainability toolbox and how he thinks about growth in the future.
ClearFlame’s research and development is located in Columbus, Indiana. Learn more here.
