Our Program

 

We Are Not Your Typical Accelerator

Launched in 2016 by the Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Cultivation Corridor, the Iowa AgriTech Accelerator is designed to build upon one of the region’s key industries —agriculture— and Greater Des Moines’ success in advancing startups and technology through its many resources available to entrepreneurs. The program fosters innovation and helps Central Iowa continue to be one of the top regions in the nation for startup companies. We are part of the Global Accelerator Network, an ecosystem of accelerators whose mission is to work with startups towards scalable and sustainable growth. With these partnerships, along with the opportunity to collaborate with our mentors and investors, agtech companies will have the resources and support they need to hit the ground running.

We Believe in You…Here’s How We Show It

$40,000 seed funding for a 6% equity position in the startup

Program runs from the beginning of June to the end of August, 2019 

Access to over a hundred mentors
Tours of investor and mentor companies when not in the office for holistic education, outreach, networking, and presentation opportunites
Provided office space in the Historic East Village of Des Moines, Iowa
Subsidized housing provided at a nearby extended-stay facility
Graduation during the World Food Prize
Startup-friendly term sheet with common stock, no liquidation preferences, no board seat, and limited preemptive provisions

2019 Cohort

The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator has selected four agtech startups for this year’s 2019 cohort:

 

  • Otrafy (Vancouver, Canada) — Otrafy is building the data infrastructure that enables seamless transfer of goods between different parties and jurisdictions, thus becoming the gold standard for authenticity and transparency in the food industry.
  • droneSAR (Des Moines, Iowa) — droneSAR develops radar imaging technology for commercial drones and small aircrafts that can sense below the crop canopy.
  • Raks Agricultural Technology (São Leopoldo, Brazil) — Raks Agricultural Technology provides a system to improve irrigation control based on new TDR sensors to measure the soil moisture, presenting all information on a web platform or mobile app.
  • FarmatroniX (College Park, Maryland) — FarmatroniX aims to tackle the skilled labor shortage by providing growers an artificial intelligence system that can control the growing process without any human input. 

Are You the Future of AgTech Innovation?

Apply @ F6S