Application Now Open!
Great innovation starts with answering one question: what problem are you uniquely positioned to solve?
Velocity is an agbioscience accelerator focused in three critical areas: food is health, bioinnovation and farmer-focused innovation. Guided by research and strong mentorship, participants ranging from students, start-ups and existing companies will create solutions to defined challenges. Velocity culminates with a $25,000 prize for each track and an opportunity to move big ideas forward.
Empowering innovators to move big ideas forward.
In partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and Indiana Soybean Alliance, Velocity tasks students, startups and existing companies with creating solutions to defined challenges in three critical areas: bioinnovation, farmer-focused innovation and food is health.
Up to 10 teams will be selected per track.
Explore Challenge Research
Priority Areas for Indiana's Agbioscience Future
Conducted by Arrowpoint Labs, the study entitled Advancing Innovation: Priority Areas for Indiana’s Agbioscience Future, updates the sector’s economic impact in Indiana, synthesizes insights from key state and national agbioscience leaders and provides problem statements for the innovation community – from students to startups and existing companies – to solve through Velocity.
What problem will you uniquely solve?
Velocity Innovators can focus on one of three critical areas:
BioInnovation
Develop technology that unlocks powerful markets for bio-based products, including focuses on gene editing for operational
simplicity, mid-scale biomanufacturing and fermentation infrastructure, and agricultural waste stream biorefinery
transformations. Challenges include:
- Advance gene editing technologies delivering enhanced crop traits (climate resilience, nutritional density, nitrogen-use efficiency) through improved seed varieties that minimize operational change requirements.
- Advance technologies enabling modular, flexible mid-scale fermentation and bioprocessing infrastructure that support pilot and scaling of precision fermentation, microbial strain engineering, and bio-based chemical production domestically.
- Develop enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, and chemical conversion technologies transforming high-volume agricultural waste streams into high-value bioplastics, biochemicals, specialty food ingredients, and advanced materials at commercial scale with positive economics.
Farmer Focused Innovation
Leverage technology to assist farmers with some of the most critical issues facing their operations; including farm data
intelligence and interoperability, regulatory navigation and compliance automation, and human-out-of-loop automation for
labor-intensive operations. Challenges to address include:
- Build unified farm data platforms that consolidate 500,000+ daily data points from fragmented systems into predictive decision support tools that demonstrate clear ROI and integrate seamlessly with existing farm operations.
- Develop automated compliance and regulatory navigation platforms that reduce time burden of complex EPA pesticide point systems, conservation program paperwork, and multi-jurisdictional requirements while maintaining farmer access to essential chemistry and economic incentives
- Create autonomous equipment and AI-enabled robotics for complex farm tasks (specialty crop harvesting, livestock management, processing operations) that deliver under 2-year ROI, mitigate skilled labor needs, and integrate with existing farm infrastructure.
Food Is Health
Develop and accelerate innovation that increases food and nutrition access and enables food as a driver of health, giving
opportunities across the agricultural and healthcare value chains to positively impact healthier lives, communities and
environment. Challenges to address include:
- Build platforms connecting farmers to healthcare payers, CPG companies, and health-conscious consumers that enable transparent pricing premiums for nutrient-dense crops, identity-preserved supply chains at commercial scale, and measurable clinical outcome tracking.
- Develop data collection, integration, and analytics platforms demonstrating measurable clinical outcomes (ER visit reduction, hospitalization decrease, medication use reduction) from food interventions, enabling sustainable business cases for healthcare payers beyond temporary grant funding
- Develop protein-enriched ingredients and functional food components that integrate seamlessly into existing CPG manufacturing processes while improving macronutrient profiles and meeting consumer requirements.
An accelerator program for innovators. Get started with us today!
2026 Timeline
Challenge Released
Application Deadline
Accelerator Runs
Demo Day
Congratulations to our 2025 Velocity Winners!
Chicago, Ill.-based Integrated Dynamics, Indianapolis, Ind.-based NanoBio Designs and South Bend, Ind.-based NutriPop have won Velocity in 2025, securing each company $25,000 to advance their tech-enabled businesses that address many of the toughest challenges facing the food and agbioscience economy.
Directionally Speaking
Meet the entrepreneurs and innovators in last year’s Velocity cohort.
Explore Challenge Resources
Demo Day Speakers
Maggie Bowden
Program Director Elevance Health Foundation
Brad Fruth
Director of Innovation Beck’s Hybrids
Allan Gray
Executive Director DIAL Ventures
Megan Ritter
Chief Administrative Officer Indiana Farm Bureau
