TOPEKA, KANSAS, August 16, 2024 -- Plug and Play Topeka is excited to announce the first Agtech and Animal Health cohorts for their newly restructured nine-month program.
As always, the program’s primary goal is to foster innovation within the Agtech and Animal Health industries by supporting disruptive startups and connecting them with Plug and Play’s corporate partners. As was the case with the three-month program, the startups will continue to participate in a series of business development webinars and mentor sessions with industry experts. But several additional elements have been added to the new structure, including five in-person events and a series of themed virtual events that will feature industry thought leaders and startup pitches.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what a nine-month experience can provide for the startups in the cohort,” said Plug and Play Topeka’s Program Manager, Anne Gunden. “We’ve seen some great successes come from the three-month program, so it’s exciting to imagine the types of relationships and projects we can help foster over the course of a longer program.”
Startups for the program were sourced based on focus areas set by the corporate partners. The Agtech program will feature startups within the areas of finance and insurance, AI on the farm, biostimulants, and IoT and sensing. Meanwhile, startups in the Animal Health program are those focusing on packaging, food safety, animal diagnostics, and ingredients. This year’s cohort comprises companies from eight different countries—and eight different states within the United States.
As the beginning of the program nears, startups are looking forward to the opportunities the program will provide. Julian Schlidknect, the champion for Hamburg-based MicroHarvest, said, “As we are accelerating our go-to-market execution, this opportunity couldn't have come at a better time. We're excited to learn, grow, and refine our approach with the guidance of some of the best in the business.We truly believe this experience will help us not only achieve our goals but exceed them.”
Another startup in the program, Earthodic (Dover, DE) is no stranger to the Plug and Play program—having just finished up their participation in last spring’s Food & Beverage accelerator. “The Earthodic team is honored to be participating in the Plug and Play Animal Health program over the coming months. Having participated in a Food and Beverage cohort, we found the access and introduction to corporate partners, investors and also the course content incredibly helpful as we navigated our early growth and seed funding round. We're excited to take part in the program and engage further with Plug and Play's deep network of corporate partners as we roll out our sustainable coating solutions to the North American market and beyond,” said CEO, Anthony Musumeci.
Paula Walker, CEO and Founder of ControlPoint Inc (Campbell, CA), says her team is “thrilled to be part of the Plug and Play’s Animal Health accelerator program. ControlPoint is bringing new, innovative diagnostic tools to veterinarians and others who care for companion and production animals to ensure fast and appropriate diagnoses. The program will enable us to network with leaders in the industry to bring our products to market more quickly and efficiently.”
Lindsay Lebahn, Director of the Plug and Play Topeka, is looking forward to the start of the new batch in general and the launch of the new program specifically: “As we know, all good things take time—and that includes relationships and innovation. With this new program and the intentionality behind the structuring and the sourcing, I’m excited about the potential this program can offer for the relationships between startups and our corporate partners. I’m also excited to see how the new aspects of the program will allow us to increase our engagement with other ecosystem players.”
Some of the other important players include economic development groups and universities. “GO Topeka and Plug and Play Topeka have been instrumental in fostering growth and innovation in the Animal Health and Agtech sectors, which is propelling economic development in Topeka and the surrounding region,” stated Stephanie Moran, SVP of Innovation for GO Topeka. "The Batch Kickoff Event is an exciting opportunity to see the cutting-edge technologies and solutions that will ultimately become a part of our accelerator program and better the Agech and Animal Health industries.” A longstanding strategic partner, Go Topeka is the newest official partner to sign with Plug and Play Topeka. Their partnership offers a direct connection to Kansas State University’s TDI (Technology Development Institute), which has seven projects in the works with startups from the previous batch.
The program will officially begin with the Batch Kickoff Event at the Aon Center in Chicago, IL. Corporate partners and batch startups from four Plug and Play verticals—Agtech, Animal Health, Food & Beverage, and New Materials & Packaging—will gather to mingle. Similar to those in the past, the program will conclude with back-to-back pitch events, starting with the joining Agtech / Animal Health Expo in Topeka.
Plug and Play proudly partners with the following entities: Go Topeka (on behalf of Kansas State University), Hill’s Pet Nutrition, American National Insurance, Bremer Bank, Farm Credit Services of America, CoBank, American AgCredit, and Mosaic.
Click below to learn more about the startups participating in the programs.
Agtech Startups:
Agarea—Barwang, NSW, Australia
Simplifying crop insurance and seasonal finance for farming businesses
Atolla Tech—Round Rock, TX
Atolla Tech is automating the integrated Pest Management process by providing real-time alerts of insect pests and monitoring of beneficials thereby reducing yield loss and increasing crop quality.
Biome Makers—West Sacramento, CA
Biome Makers is specialized in microbiome understanding to provide comprehensive analysis for agricultural and industrial processes.
Blomso—Columbus, OH
Blomso: Cultivating tomorrow's farming
Convergent Bio—Minneapolis, MN
Creating large impact by designing very very small. Human medicine bio-delivery tech, reimagined for plant health. Designing a better food and planet future.
Excarta—San Francisco, CA
Excarta uses AI to reduce insurance losses caused by catastrophic weather.
Gripp—Indianapolis, IN
Gripp is the easiest way for farmers to track all the assets they rely on to be successful, empowering the entire operation, and centralizing on-farm communication so critical knowledge doesn't escape the farm - eliminating downtime, wasted efforts and building an accountable culture of care on your farm.
Ground Truth Agriculture—Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Automated grain grading from farm to destination.
KoraLabs—Zurich, Switzerland
The Data Platform for agricultural input manufacturers
M4Life—Tucuman, Argentina
We have developed the first microorganism training technology to boost and enhance biological inputs.
NAX Solutions—Alicante, Spain
Nax Solutions optimizes agricultural production through AI-driven precision agriculture, helping farmers increase yields and reduce costs by providing actionable insights from satellite data.
Newwave Biotech—Adelaide, Australia
New Wave products are Powering Plants Microbiomes.
NutriSen—Straubing, Bavaria, Germany
Real-time nutrient sensing for smart fertilization
Upside Robotics—San Francisco, CA
AI scout & spray swarm system robots that eliminate the guesswork in nitrogen management
Animal Health Startups
AlgaeBioMas—Argentina
We value the gift that nature gave us thousands of years ago by culturing microalgae to improve human an animal health.
ControlPoint Inc—Campbell, CA
ControlPoint develops diagnostic tests to improve animal health around the globe.
Earthodic—Dover, DE
Earthodic creates sustainable functional barrier coatings for paper-based packaging
Hinalea Imaging—Emeryville, CA
Hinalea develops intelligent hyperspectral imaging solutions to enhance and automate complex agrifood inspection processes
HT Vet—Tel Aviv, Israel
HT Vet is here to Rule out cancer in lumps and bumps, non-invasively within 2 min, and without taking an FNA or a biopsy.
Medipups—Los Angeles, CA
We are Medipups, a company built by pet owners, for pet owners.
MicroHarvest GmbH—Hamburg, Germany and Lisbon, Portugal
Delivering better protein ingredients, today.
Natáur—Baltimore, MD
Converting high-value sulfur synthetics to healthy biologicals
ProPetDX Inc.—San Mateo, CA
When you pet can't tell you something is wrong, we can.
Queva
Revolutionizing pet health with innovative wearable technology for preventive care.
SnapDNA—Broomfield, CO
SnapDNA can save the US food industry $90 Billion/year, reduce the carbon footprint of cold storage, and provide consumers with fresher food.
About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform—connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we're present in 50+ locations across five continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we've invested in hundreds of successful companies, including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/
Plug and Play Topeka Contact: l.lebahn@pnptc.com