gener8tor Partners with Serra Ventures to Launch Accelerator for Ag and Food Startups
Illinois AgTech Accelerator welcomes fifth cohort
CHAMPAIGN, Il. - The Illinois AgTech Accelerator kicked off the 2023 gener8tor AgTech cohort on March 20, with Serra Ventures serving as a key partner. The accelerator is investing $100k in five high-growth AgTech and agriculture startups, providing a concierge, white-glove experience to each of them.
The gener8tor AgTech Accelerator is designed to set a path for startups emerging ag and food technologies succeed by leveraging local, regional and global partnerships with investors, corporations and academic institutions.
“We’re excited to partner with gener8tor to help support early-stage AgTech and Agriculture startups in the Midwest,” said Dennis Beard, managing partner at Serra Ventures. “Illinois is home to world-class institutions like the University of Illinois, and we believe this partnership can help grow the next generation of startups in the region.
Other program supporters include Agri-Fab, GEM Realty Capital, University of Illinois Research Park, Champaign County Economic Development Corporation, and BASF.
At the end of the program, startup founders will pitch their companies to investors, community partners and the public at a showcase event at Parkland College on June 6th.
Startup companies and founders interested in learning more about the Illinois AgTech Accelerator and resources or applying to a future program are encouraged to visit the gener8tor website.
gener8tor AgTech Accelerator 2023 Company Summaries
Agricycle - fieldbetteringredients.com
CEO - Josh Shefner - josh@agricycleglobal.com
Agricycle’s upcycled ingredient marketplace connects the world's hardest-to-source commodities for global food manufacturers. Agricycle integrates >90K smallholder farmers into a tech-enabled and export-grade network capable of supplying >$100M of ingredients annually. Agricycle has 2X-better margins than legacy competitors and has generated $1M in revenue to date.
Boston Bioprocess - bostonbioprocess.com
CEO - Michael Tai - mtai@bostonbioprocess.com
Boston Bioprocess’ first-of-its kind platform scales fermentation-based products. We offer wet lab services from benchtop-scale to pilot-scale to help our clients scale their technology into industrial manufacturing. Our services include strain evaluation, fermentation / downstream processing scale up, regulatory guidance through FDA approval, and tech transfer to manufacturing organizations. Boston Bioprocess has signed five clients and is expanding capacity to meet additional demand for 2023.
DigiFarmz Smart Agriculture - www.digifarmz.com
CEO - Alexandre Monteiro Chequim - chequim@digifarmz.com
DigiFarmz’s digital platform, built on two decades of research, combines climate and satellite information with state-of-the-art algorithms. This platform provides personalized smart agronomic recommendations to reduce errors in crop management. This enables greater food production with less environmental impact, as well as key intelligence in the risk management of agricultural credit and insurance operations. DigiFarmz is being used by more than 1,200 farmers on 1.7M acres in the US and Brazil and has grown revenue 184% YoY.
Just Vertical - justvertical.com
CEO - Conner Tidd - ctidd@justvertical.com
Just Vertical builds furniture that feeds you. Just Vertical’s indoor gardens fuse the cutting edge science of vertical farming with mid-century modern design to create beautiful indoor gardens for your home, office and restaurant. At Just Vertical, we believe that growing your own food will be as common as owning a microwave. Just Vertical has 1700+ customers and will do $1.6M in revenue this year, which represents 300% YoY growth.
RevivBio - www.revivbio.com
CEO - Aileen Mastouri - aileen.mastouri@revivbio.com
RevivBio designs eco-friendly bio-inspired crop and animal health products. Using Pico™, our platform for designing, building and testing billions of variants of bioactive biomolecules, RevivBio identifies those that can protect plants and animals from resistant pests and pathogens. The first product, Revivio®, is a broad-spectrum biofungicide that has shown remarkable efficacy in the field and is set to launch in 2025 to address the $400B crop loss caused by fungal pathogens.
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About gener8tor
gener8tor is a global venture firm and accelerator network that supports startups, workers, employers, artists and musicians across race, place and gender. gener8tor partners with companies, governments, universities and nonprofits to operate programs and conferences in more than 41 communities across 22 states and two countries. Fast Company named gener8tor one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2021 and 2022. The International Trade Council recognized gener8tor as the Global Venture Capital Firm of the Year in 2022.
About Illinois AgTech Accelerator
The Illinois AgTech Accelerator offers programming for high-growth startups developing commercial solutions and products in the ag and food industries. Programs offered include gener8tor AgTech, which is a 12-week, investment-based program for growth-stage startups, and gBETA AgTech, which is a 7-week program that facilitates the growth of early-stage companies through a network-driven program and requires no fees for startups and takes no equity.
About Serra Ventures
Serra Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in technology companies. Sectors of focus include information technology, devices/instrumentation, and agricultural technologies. The Serra Ventures team has been deeply involved in the Ag Tech category for some time, making its first investments in the space in 2010. The steady increase in quantity and quality of Ag Tech deals in its evaluation pipeline, along with notable exits of other portfolio companies in the space (640 Labs Label Insight and Agrible), convinced the team to create a standalone fund in 2021 - The Serra Capital Ag Tech Fund - with the singular focus of agriculture technology and agri-food technology. Serra Ventures is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, with additional offices in San Diego, Calif, Park City, Utah and Chicago, IL.
