Eight innovative startups have been selected to participate in a 5-week virtual bootcamp hosted by AgLaunch, the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, Sync Space, and The Biz Foundry. Teams accepted into the program will experience best-in-class agricultural entrepreneurship programming with engagement from members of the AgLaunch Farmer Network. They will also have access to best-in-class investors and mentors and the chance to apply for the AgLaunch365 accelerator.
Companies from across the globe that provide competitive advantages or new market opportunities for row crops, vegetable and specialty crops, livestock, and value-added production in food and beverage were encouraged to apply.
This year’s teams include:
- AgriKnect: A dual-sided digital platform that allows farmers and other ag businesses to connect and hire workers for their operations.
- Benanova: BENANOVA is a science startup that has developed a cost-efficient environmentally benign particle system (EbNPs) made of natural materials, which can leverage the functional properties of bioactive agents.
- BurgerFit: A startup company that has blended ground meat and vegetable burgers to help families eat healthier starting from the age of two-years old. 90% of adults and children do not meet the daily vegetable intake recommendation, BurgerFit can help change that.
- SCAREcrow Farm Tech: A company that has created a series of algorithms to help reduce mundane and time-consuming farm tasks. Each SCAREcrow algorithm is designed so that farmers will not face a significant learning curve, can fine-tune the algorithm to each farming location and technique, and frees the frame to focus on other, more important tasks.
- S&J Nanochemicals: A startup that designed a sustainable nanoparticle fertilizer with a seed pre-soaking nutrient delivery strategy that increases growth and vitality in a variety of plant species.
- Soil1 LLC: Soil1™ is committed to provide user friendly, highly affordable tools to help make decisions that will sustainably and affordably optimize soil’s agricultural productivity. Soil1™ Soil Quality Field Test Kit allows to test the soil for five variables in real time in the field.
- Sustainable Aquatics: A startup company that farms salmon in Tennessee with reduced costs, high quality feeds, higher yields, and lower cost logistics. Since 2003 the Tennessee SA Hatchery has bred dozens of species from resident broodstock and every month provides tens of thousands of colorful healthy fish to retailers around the country and globe.
- Veggie Mines: A startup that has created a new concept in vegetable farming by utilizing tech solutions to address old-age farming problems.
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