gener8tor Partners with Serra Ventures to Launch Accelerator for Ag and Food Startups
Illinois AgTech Accelerator Welcomes Sixth Cohort
CHAMPAIGN, Il. - The Illinois AgTech Accelerator kicked off the 2023 gBETA AgTech cohort on October 2, with Serra Ventures serving as a key partner. The accelerator is supporting five high-growth AgTech and agriculture startups, providing a concierge, white-glove experience to each of them.
The gBETA 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. gBETA AgTech alums have raised more than $6 million in seed funding to date.
"At Serra Ventures, we’re committed to supporting AgTech and Agriculture innovation, and our partnership with gener8tor is a key part of that," said Dennis Beard, Managing Partner at Serra Ventures. "We’re fortunate to be in the presence of institutions like the University of Illinois, as we’re constantly seeking startups that have positioned themselves to have a wider impact on global sustainability and food access. These startups will hopefully redefine the future of agriculture technology.”
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 the EnterpriseWorks incubator at 5 p.m. Nov. 9.
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.
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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.
gBETA AgTech Accelerator 2023 Company Summaries
Croptimize provides cutting-edge technology that enables food suppliers to optimize their land use by planning what, where, and when to crop. This allows for efficient resource allocation, increased productivity, and improved sustainability in the food supply chain. Croptimize is in three paid POC discussions, including two of the largest global food and beverage CPG companies, to launch an MVP across two continents in 2024.
Croptimize - croptimize.tech | CEO - Shai Gilboa - shai@croptimize.tech | CMO - Pamela Jramoy - pamela@croptimize.tech
Gather builds simplified robotic tools for specialty crop farms. Gather’s first product is an easy-to-use and affordable crop transportation robot for table grape farms that increases harvest efficiency and farmworker safety. Gather’s first prototype demo will be the first week of November 2023 at HMC Farms in Kingsburg, CA.
Gather | CEO - Suma Reddy - suma@farmhandventures.com
Good Agriculture is an AI-powered farm business management platform that helps farmers spend less time on back-office activities and do more of what they do best – focus on farming operations. Good Agriculture simplifies the full stack of farm finance including federal incentive programs, crop insurance, cost of production and agriculture taxes. Good Agriculture has 24 active customers generating $1,500 in monthly recurring revenue and is growing 20 percent month over month.
Good Agriculture - goodagriculture.com | CEO - Alex Edquist - alex@goodagriculture.com
Growmics seeks to provide plant researchers with scalable tools needed to conduct their essential molecular biology research. Growmics makes plant-specific, end-to-end multi-omics kits for reproducible and scalable solutions. Growmics is in late-stage discussions worth $385k and expects to close $260k in contracted revenue before 2023 year end.
Growmics - growmics.com | CSO - Oussama Badad - oussama@growmics.com
Healthy Cow is an agricultural biotechnology company that develops innovative probiotics and other natural products to improve cow health and welfare while reducing reliance on antibiotics and hormones. Healthy Cow's mission is to provide producers with innovative animal-health solutions that enable them to proactively care for their cows and increase profitability while creating a more sustainable livestock industry. Healthy Cow has completed product manufacturing, packaging and test marketing, generating approximately $20,000 in direct-to-farmer and distributor sales and has been used on more than 4,000 cows.
Healthy Cow - healthycow.ca | Co-Founder, Managing Partner - Louis Hui - lhui@healthycow.ca
