AgriNovus launches accelerator to address agbioscience challenges
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AgriNovus Indiana has created a new accelerator program designed to launch new tech-focused businesses with the goal of addressing challenges in the food and agbioscience spaces.
Launching next year, Velocity will be a six-month program that will award a total of $75,000 to entrepreneurs who present the top solution in three categories: BioInnovation, Farmer-Focused Innovation, and Food is Health.
“This accelerator program defines those challenges in a very discrete way but then creates the infrastructure with connection to industry, connections to capital, connections to policy makers, connections to other innovators, and helps entrepreneurs go from an idea and take that idea and turn it into action,” said AgriNovus CEO Mitch Frazier.
Frazier told Inside INdiana Business that Velocity builds on the success of previous AgriNovus competitions, including the Producer-Led Innovation Challenge.
“We really think of those as pilots, and what we’ve proven in those is our unique ability to create the connections and the context and the content to turn ideas into actions,” Frazier said. “Every company that has won in the past, has either received follow on funding or has been acquired, and that really is market validation of the solutions that are being developed, or actually the solutions the market needs to go solve some of these tough challenges.”
Velocity is split into three main tracks for entrepreneurs to focus on.
AgriNovus says there is an “unprecedented” demand for bio-based innovation as the need for renewable products such as alternative fuels, green chemistry and bio-based products in packaging, cosmetics and other areas grows.
“[With] BioInnovation, how do we take the products that we grow, the products that we make, and how do we do that with the crops that we have?” Frazier said.
In the Farmer-Focused Innovation category, AgriNovus is looking address challenges such as streamlining administrative processes to gain efficiencies in operational management and integrating robotics and automation to supplement human labor to help address worker shortages.
With Food is Health, the organization says there are needs to address food insecurity such as accelerating technologies to increase access to high-quality nutrition, improving middle-mile logistics in the delivery of food, and unlocking the power of food at the production level to help make people healthier.
Frazier said the participants in each of those tracks will be guided by research and mentorship throughout the six-month accelerator.
“We’ll award three, $25,000 checks—one in each of those categories—to whatever innovator, whatever entrepreneur can best solve those challenges across Food is Health, BioInnovation, and Farmer-Led Innovation,” he said.
Frazier said the lessons learned from the organization’s Producer-Led Innovation Challenge and HungerTech Innovation Challenge informed the creation of Velocity, particularly the need for more time to bring an idea to life.
“We’ve had, in some cases, eight weeks, nine weeks, 10 weeks of programming, which has been really helpful. We just need a little more time together,” he said. “Velocity creates the infrastructure, creates a platform over six months to really turn those ideas into action and give more time for industry and academia and entrepreneurs all to come together to really dial in product market fit, understanding the challenge to be solved and creating a really unique solution to solve those challenges.”
Those interested in participating can find more information, including how to register, at the program’s website. The deadline to register is Jan. 24, 2025.
The program will culminate with a demo day event and winning check presentations on June 18.
Velocity is being developed in partnership with the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Greenfield-based Elevance Health, Beck’s Hybrids in Hamilton County, and Ag Alumni Seed.