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Demo Day Closes Iowa AgriTech Accelerator 2018 Program
Iowa Ag Connection - 10/18/2018

The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator capped off its second annual program at its Demonstration Day. The event was held at the Des Moines Downtown Marriott in conjunction with the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue. The startups from this year's program were on hand to present their agtech innovation to the public, and Accelerator Executive Director Megan Vollstedt discussed highlights from this year's program.

Contributing to the success of this year's class are the program's investors and mentors. The Accelerator has support from some of the largest and well-known agtech and ag-related companies in Iowa, including Corteva Agriscience (Agriculture Division of DowDuPont), Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company, Grinnell Mutual, Kent Corporation, John Deere, Peoples Company and Sukup Manufacturing Co., in addition to more than 120 volunteer mentors. The Accelerator's startups spent 94 days in the incubator program this summer, working with mentors and investors to present their solutions to refine product-market fit, perform customer discovery within the industry and build strategic partnerships.

"We used successes and lessons learned from our 2017 program to refine the accelerator process for our startups this year," says Vollstedt. "Our 2018 cohort spent more time enhancing their business platforms with mentors and broadening their networking opportunities for future strategic partnerships. It was a successful year, and I look forward to following each startup's path to success moving forward."

The Accelerator's Class of 2018 included: U.S. Design Consultants (Osceola, Iowa), AgHelp (Grand Rapids, Mich.), VakSea (Baltimore, Md.), Krobel Corp. (Mankato, Minn.) and BirdPreneur (Abeokuta, Nigeria).

The Accelerator also announced it will begin accepting applications on Jan. 7 for the Class of 2019. To learn more about The Accelerator and how you can become a mentor or investor or to apply for next year's class, visit AgIowa.com.

The Iowa AgriTech Accelerator is a mentor-led accelerator focused on agtech innovations. Led by innovators and leaders in several areas of agriculture, The Accelerator seeks startups ready to change the status quo.


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