Venture capital has become synonymous with innovation. And one firm is turning to an event featuring world renowned artists, actors, athletes and innovators (plus a multi-million-dollar pitch competition) to drive new creative collisions. Toph Day, CEO of Elevate Ventures and mastermind of the Rally Innovation Conference, joins today to talk the state of venture capital, false growth driving bad decisions and his optimism heading into the last quarter of 2024.
Part of his optimism starts with a major event kicking off in Indianapolis this week – the 2nd Rally Innovation Conference. Toph stresses the value of other vertical perspectives, bringing a wide range of expertise together at Rally and what attendees can expect at the event this week (in one word: Toph says to expect magic).
What’s so different about Rally, anyway? Toph acknowledges that innovation doesn’t happen 1 on 1 between investor and entrepreneur and introduces a critical figure to the process: the disparate stakeholder (the figure upon which the event was launched). Between the demo floor, nationally renowned keynote speakers and a multi-million-dollar pitch competition, Rally is designed to bring together leaders across multiple disciplines to drive new, creative waves of innovation.
With over 3,000 attendees in year one, Toph has a big vision for Rally’s sophomore season. This includes keynotes from Tia White, Alex Rodriguez, Marcus Lemonis and Jann Mardenborough (think creative collisions) + fantastic breakout sessions across food and agtech (among other verticals).
Learn more about Rally at rallyinnovation.com. Use code RALLYAgrinovus to get 40% off your ticket.
Companies, students, startups, academics and innovators to compete for $25,000 grand prize; Registration ends September 7
AgriNovus Indiana, an initiative to grow the agbioscience economy, launched the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge today – a nine-week accelerator to create tech-enabled businesses that manage on-farm labor shortages while also saving farmers time and money.
In partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge creates an opportunity for companies, entrepreneurs, students and innovators to compete for a $25,000 grand prize by developing technology that reduces labor needs without facing the strategic decision between investment risk and labor uncertainty.
“Farmers continue to face critical headwinds when it comes to securing adequate on-farm labor,” said Mitch Frazier, president and CEO of AgriNovus. “The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge creates an opportunity for tech innovators to develop solutions that reduce administrative burden and drives value on the farm.”
The 2024 Producer-Led Innovation Challenge will largely focus on digital innovation in at least one of the following areas:
Data Management – developing a unified solution that consolidates financial, agronomic and credit program data to enable seamless access and management in real time;
Government Program Compliance – creating tools to streamline government compliance processes for incentive and risk management programs, reducing the farmer’s time on tasks;
Labor Management – automating and optimizing labor scheduling, tracking time and task assignment based on real time operational needs and worker availability;
Labor Resource Access – designing a platform that simplifies the navigation of labor programs like H2-A, helping producers connect with available labor resources more efficiently despite bureaucratic hurdles; and
Robotics and Automation – integrating robotics and automation to supplement human labor, addressing worker shortages while minimizing the financial and logistical burden on producers.
Given the critical nature of administration and labor management in agriculture, the Challenge encourages teams to innovate for current inefficiencies while also enhancing overall management and productivity of on-farm processes, ensuring sustainable and profitable outcomes for producers.
“While running a farm is much like running any other business, there are some unique challenges that farmers face that deserve attention,” said Ben Forsythe, sustainability and value creation director for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Soybean Alliance. “Technology development and adoption is key to tackling those challenges and Indiana’s corn and soybean checkoffs are excited to be a part of this program. There has been a long history of success with the companies involved in the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge, and we are looking forward to seeing what great innovation comes out of this year’s competition.”
A study completed by Aimpoint Research informed the scope of this year’s Challenge and outlined three areas of opportunity to innovate for farmers, including labor shortages and management, administrative burden and technological adoption. Read the study here.
The Producer-Led Innovation Challenge has served as a springboard for entrepreneurial companies to thrive. Since its launch, every company that has won the Challenge has either received follow-on funding or has been acquired. FiberX, winner of the 2024 Challenge, most recently closed on an additional round of funding that included investment from Purdue Innovates.
Companies, individuals and entrepreneurs who want to participate in the Challenge can access technical information, Challenge objectives, rules and register to participate here. The deadline to register is September 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Annual Awards Program Recognizes Innovation in Agricultural & Food Technologies Around the Globe
Intelinair, an ag data analytics company, today announced it has garnered “AgTech Data Analytics Company of the Year” in the 5th annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies, and products in the global agricultural and food technology markets today. This is the second time in three years the company has been recognized with this prestigious award.
Intelinair’s ag tech platform, AGMRI, has recently been enhanced with AGMRI Analyze – alongside its established in-season analytics suite, AGMRI Insights. AGMRI Insights focuses on the data and information used to make decisions during the crop growing season to protect yield. AGMRI Analyze complements the real-time insights and actionable alerts of AGMRI Insights by offering a retrospective data analysis of the entire crop season to enhance decision making.
By examining crucial factors—including emergence, nutrient deficiency, crop health, hybrid and variety, weather, soil, and machine performance—AGMRI Analyze equips users with the actionable intelligence to guide decision making or make potential changes or improvements for the next year’s crop.
Intelinair’s AGMRI solution monitors the entire field throughout the crop season and delivers timely insights so farmers can make decisions and take actions to protect yield potential. Using a mobile device or tablet, a farmer or ag retailer can pinpoint issues and assess factors that may have impacted their yield while providing convenience and flexibility for users.
“With AGMRI Analyze, we’re taking data-driven decision-making to the next level. Our approach to problem-solving is more than just delivering data; we bring insights in a way that can be used to make decisions on every field to deliver a strong ROI throughout the entire crop season,” said Tim Hassinger, President and CEO of Intelinair. “Thanks to AgTech Breakthrough for recognizing our AGMRI platform and the value it brings to corn and soybean farmers and ag retailers.”
The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
“Intelinair’s AGMRI stands out as the only platform to offer comprehensive and integrated analytics for farmers and ag retailers through the season. Post-crop season insights go beyond assessing yield, quality, and the impact of various management practices, these insights help farmers with future planting seasons and support the adoption of precision farming practices to promote long-term sustainability,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, AgTech Breakthrough. “In a market inundated with technology solutions, Intelinair’s powerful combination of data analytics and machine learning is a game changer and provides a holistic understanding of field conditions to enable data-driven decision-making throughout the crop season, not just part of the season. We’re proud to name them ‘AgTech Data Analytics Company of the Year!’”
Funded short-term projects will address industry feedback on innovative technologies
Researchers in Purdue University’s colleges of Agriculture and Science have received an additional $95,000 from the Trask Innovation Fund to develop patent-pending drought-resistant soybean plants and novel arthritis treatments.
The fund is managed by the Purdue Innovates Incubator, which provides programming for the Purdue University community to ideate, refine and support their solutions. Funding recipients can receive up to $50,000 for their initial project; they may reapply a maximum of three times to receive up to an aggregate cap of $100,000 to support the same technology.
Matt Dressler, Incubator’s fund manager, said the goal of this funding round is to enable companies to make a confident assessment in the work.
“The teams developing the arthritis and soybean innovations secured $75,000 in an initial round of funding and completed their project’s deliverables,” he said. “Although industry expressed interest in the work, both are still early in the development phase. The feedback, however, has directed the researchers to further de-risk their technology, which is the purpose of this funding.”
The two spring 2024 recipients of the second round of Trask Innovation Fund awards, their projects and award amounts are:
Herman Sintim; College of Science, Purdue Institute for Cancer Research and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery; “New Agents for Potential Treatment of Arthritis”; $50,000
Sintim said arthritis is a debilitating disease that affects millions of people globally.
“Current medications for arthritis include expensive biologics and small-molecule drugs, typically anti-inflammatory drugs, which are not effective for a large proportion of arthritis patients,” he said.
Sintim leads a team developing novel, patent-pending compounds that potentially inhibit TAK1, a protein kinase shown to play key roles in arthritis, especially rheumatoid arthritis.
“A few small molecules that inhibit TAK1 have been developed, but the majority inhibit many other kinases and/or do not have good oral bioavailability,” he said. “So far, no TAK1 inhibitor has entered clinical trials for arthritis.”
Sintim said the second round of Trask funding will be used to collect data that shows the compounds’ readiness for clinical translation.
“While we have demonstrated the compounds are orally bioavailable and potent TAK1 inhibitors in mice, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires more experiments to be conducted before a molecule can be dosed in humans,” Sintim said. “This round of Trask funding would help obtain industry standard data, such as toxicology and pharmacokinetics data in additional animal studies.”
Gyeong Mee Yoon; College of Agriculture; “Constitutive Nuclear Targeting of CTR1 (CNTC) as a Genetic Tool To Confer Drought-Tolerant Trait to Soybeans”; $45,335
Yoon said the United Nations reported that global drought could impact more than 75% of the world’s population by 2050.
“The average costs associated with droughts and heat waves have been estimated at $6.4 billion annually, and 47.33% of the contiguous United States is currently under the influence of drought conditions,” she said.
Yoon leads a team conducting research on resilient agriculture adapted to the changing climate. Their patent-pending research has identified that elevating the levels of a protein called CTR1 within a cell’s nucleus significantly enhances a plant’s drought tolerance. CTR1 is a key regulator of the plant hormone ethylene, which plays a vital role in plant stress responses.
“Manipulating the location and concentration of CTR1 in the nucleus paves the way for developing transgenic plants that can better withstand water-deficit conditions,” she said. “This offers a potential strategy to safeguard crops against the escalating challenges posed by climate change.”
Yoon and her colleagues used the first round of Trask funding to successfully generate initial transgenic soybean lines that incorporate their technology.
“This second round of funding will support work to further select and develop soybean transgenic cultivars and conduct comprehensive testing in controlled environments and field settings to evaluate their performance under real-world agronomic conditions,” she said. “This is critical for translating our technology into viable agricultural products that can contribute to global food security in an era of unprecedented climate change.”
The animal health market – estimated by many sources to be $60 billion globally – spans everything from pet health to livestock and holds applications for innovations in feeds, vaccines, therapeutics and beyond. Joining us this week to talk about this evolving market is Tim Bettington, EVP of Corporate Strategy and Market Development at Elanco, to share his front row view on the evolution of animal health and the driving forces behind its growth.
Tim talks Elanco’s bifurcation between pet and livestock health, the dynamic challenge of bringing innovation to market in both categories and their unique individual challenges and opportunities. He also gets into investment dollars flowing heavily into the pet space – and how to balance that against innovation in livestock as potential to transform our food system and planet.
Innovation in livestock has been focused largely on methane reduction in cattle and Tim shares Elanco’s approach to creating products for the animal health space while also giving farmers a pathway to economic and environmental sustainability. Tim talks their partnership with Athian, the launch of Bovaer in the U.S. market and Elanco’s role in the future of the agricultural industry.
How does Elanco view their balance between internal R&D and external partnerships? Tim dives into the critical role of artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize solutions to problems more quickly and what emerging trends will create a bigger footprint moving forward. He also talks the OneHealth Innovation District coming to Indianapolis, innovating for overall health and what’s ahead.
Biodyne USA proudly announces that its premier biostimulant product, ENVIRONOC 401, has received the esteemed Certified Biostimulant label from The Fertilizer Institute (TFI). This certification confirms that ENVIRONOC 401 meets rigorous industry efficacy, safety, and composition standards.
Gilman Farley, owner of Biodyne USA, stated, “Receiving the Certified Biostimulant label from TFI is a testament to our commitment to excellence. With the growing biostimulant market, this certification assures retailers and end-users that our product adheres to the highest industry guidelines.”
ENVIRONOC 401 is a powerful plant biostimulant infused with billions of beneficial microbes. It enhances sustainability, accelerates germination, improves plant health, and boosts soil quality. Additionally, it increases fertilizer efficiency and mitigates the overuse of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
The Biostimulant Certification Program, focused on efficacy, safety, and composition, provides essential assurances for manufacturers, agricultural retailers, and growers. This certification fosters confidence among stakeholders and supports the advancement of sustainable agricultural practices.
“For Biodyne USA, this certification demonstrates our adherence to stringent manufacturing standards and testing methods,” Farley concluded. “It allows ag retailers to consider our product for shelf space confidently and gives growers assurance in our product’s compliance with industry standards, enabling them to make informed decisions.”
Food: it’s the only economy that touches every person the planet and ideally, we have a relationship with it three times a day. Despite that, many don’t know where their food comes from or its connection to the farm. Christy Wright, Director of Global Food at Corteva Agriscience, joins us today to connect the farmgate to the dinnerplate, the global challenge of food security and what dynamics play into the food economy.
Christy dives into what unites farmers and consumers: the desire for a safe, affordable food supply created sustainably. She also gets into the convergence of food and health, Corteva’s role in optimizing nutrition across the globe through farmer inputs and linking arms with food companies to optimize ingredients.
As food continues to optimize for health, what emerging trends excite Christy? She talks biologicals, regenerative agriculture and other “leveling up” solutions that create healthy crops that meet the needs of a growing population.
As for how the needs of farmers are being met on the other end of the value chain, Christy also gets into Corteva Catalyst, bringing innovation to market and what she sees as the next chapter of our food system.
Today, at the Indiana State Fair the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) presented John Baugh, Director of Agricultural Services and Regulations at Purdue University, and Ed Ebert, Senior Director of Market Development for the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, with the state’s highest agricultural honor, the AgriVision Award.
Now in its 18th year, the award is presented to individuals who have made significant contributions to the agriculture industry and their communities.
“It was an honor to present John and Ed with the AgriVision Award,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Their vision has guided the foundation of this great industry, and not just statewide, but nationally. We would not be where we are today without their leadership and commitment to supporting agriculture.”
John Baugh has been a tireless advocate for Indiana agriculture for decades. A steady presence at the Indiana Statehouse for the last 35 years, his impact can be seen on legislation that directly impacts agriculture and rural communities. He has, and continues to work closely with state agencies, including the ISDA, State Board of Animal Health, Office of the State Chemist, and many others, to ensure the laws, rules and regulations passed by the Indiana Legislature are based on both science and common sense.
Baugh is a tireless advocate for Purdue University, Purdue Agriculture and agricultural education throughout the state. Through his efforts, Vincennes and Purdue created joint facilities located adjacent to the Purdue Southwest Agricultural Center in Knox County. Those facilities have enhanced Purdue’s impact on agriculture in the region and strengthened the long-standing relationship between the two institutions. Additionally, he played a key role in assisting the college’s efforts to secure legislative support for the new veterinary hospital. Over the years, Baugh has been the lead for lobbying to secure funding to support the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) in West Lafayette and the Heeke Diagnostic Laboratory located at the Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center (SIPAC) in Dubois County.
Throughout Baugh’s career, he has served as a tireless advocate on behalf of Indiana rural communities. When considering his exhaustive contributions to forming the Indiana Corn Checkoff Law, Indiana Grain Indemnity Fund, rural broadband efforts, chemical applicator licensing issues affecting producers and citizens alike, livestock challenges and agronomic sustainability opportunities, to name a few, Mr. Baugh has proven a reliable source of information for his fellow board members over the years.
“The strength of Indiana’s agricultural industry comes from the dedication, ingenuity and perseverance of Hoosiers and visionaries like John and Ed,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “Both awardees have dedicated their careers to moving the industry forward, and it was a privilege to honor them today.”
Ed Ebert goes many, many miles to serve the soybean and corn farmers of Indiana. He is always seeking new markets to move tons of Hoosier-grown soybeans and corn to customers both nearby and around the globe. Ebert’s duties are aimed at helping to increase farmer’s bottom line. To accomplish those goals, he goes the extra mile – in a big way. Ebert has buyers interested in Indiana’s corn and soy crops and related products on six continents, and he has traveled the circumference of the Earth more times than he can count.
In a typical month, you might find Ebert working on a deal with large scale venues to use high oleic soybean oil in their concessions, promoting food-grade soybeans in Indonesia, promoting soybean oil to the food industry in Korea, educating chefs in Vietnam about U.S. Poultry and Pork, promoting U.S. soy in aquaculture diets in China, promoting chicken, duck and turkey in Colombia, talking container export opportunities with the Ports of Indiana, leveraging contacts to coordinate international trade team visits to Indiana farms, promoting the benefits or ethanol and biodiesel or advising the ISA and ICMC CEO Courtney Kingery about crop yields and bushel prices.
Ebert represents Indiana producers well on a statewide and global stage. In fact, in 2023, he and the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council engaged with 31 countries representing 57% of the world’s population and 36% of gross domestic product to work on projects to move the pile. He has been an invaluable source of knowledge on international commodity markets and is an asset to all Indiana corn and soybean farmers.
For more information about the AgriVision Award, please click here or visit www.isda.in.gov.
Cooperatives and retailers have been critical infrastructure for agriculture for generations. Keystone Cooperative CEO, Kevin Still, joins today to discuss their key role on farming operations and how ag retail has evolved since its inception.
As on-farm technologies continue to advance so does its role in cooperatives’ product portfolio. Kevin dives into Keystone Cooperative’s approach to being a trusted advisor on products and solutions that create value for their farmers – from data management to labor.
Keystone Cooperative is just a few months old and Kevin gives an update on their people, processes and bringing synergies together. Looking ahead, he talks investing in new technologies at scale and being a conduit between emerging technologies and the farmer. He also gets into the next four decades of agriculture and a new evolution of the farmer.
SePRO Corporation, a leading specialty environmental restoration company, is excited to announce Stanley Capital Partners (SCP), has made a strategic, majority investment into the business. Goldman Sachs Alternatives will also participate as a minority co-investor. This investment will further accelerate SePRO’s ability to bring the best-in-class solutions, technologies, and technical support to customers in water management, the Green Industry, and specialty agriculture.
“For the last three decades, our mission and purpose has been to protect, preserve and restore more nature,” said SePRO President Tyler Koschnick, Ph.D. “We want to first thank Excellere Partners for supporting our growth as a portfolio company of theirs since 2019. Going forward, we are excited to begin working with our new partners Stanley Capital Partners and Goldman Sachs Alternatives, as their strategic investment will support and expedite our efforts to deliver on our mission.”
SePRO’s consistent historical growth has been driven by high levels of customer engagement and product innovation that has yielded a strong and resilient brand identity. This partnership allows SePRO to tap into a new set of resources, to accelerate continued innovation in products, technologies, digitization, leading to an enhanced customer experience.
“Every day we read headlines about beaches being closed, phosphorus pollution in lakes, invasive weeds, and toxic algae destroying our ability to enjoy our water resources. By providing expanded problem-solving products and services to the market, we will be able to offer customers unsurpassed technical support and solutions for water quality restoration globally,” said Koschnick.
“We are excited to partner with SePRO leadership and Goldman Sachs Alternatives to build a technology-enabled growth story that will continue to build on the significant success of SePRO in profitable partnerships with clients to protect, preserve and restore nature,” said James Brooks, Founding Partner at Stanley Capital. “Investing in protecting our global water resources is core to SCP’s Resource Efficiency strategy.”
Patrick Hargutt, also a Founding Partner at Stanley Capital, reiterated the confidence in the company’s investment. “We identified SePRO as an attractive platform,” said Hargutt. “The mission of using innovation to create environmentally responsible solutions to protect and preserve surface water bodies is incredibly powerful and this strategy aligns perfectly with our focus on Resource Efficiency. We look forward to supporting Tyler and SePRO’s impressive leadership team in driving this exciting new chapter of growth across the United States and beyond.”
Barclays served as lead financial advisor to SCP and Sidley Austin LLP served as legal advisor. Raymond James served as lead advisor to SePRO and Piper Sandler served as co-advisor to SePRO, while Winston & Strawn LLP served as legal advisor to both SePRO and Excellere Partners.
