In collaboration with GO Topeka, the economic development group for Kansas’ capital city, Plug and Play Topeka, a global industry-specific accelerator programme, has selected 14 agtech startups and 11 animal health startups for the fall 2024 cohort.
The programme, which has extended from three months to nine months, includes companies from nine countries: the US, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Israel.
The startups, chosen by the programme’s founding partners—including Cargill, Evergy, Bimini Pet Health, and Hill’s Pet Nutrition—will participate in business development webinars and mentor sessions with industry experts. For the first time, the programme will include five in-person events and a series of themed virtual events featuring industry thought leaders and startup pitches.
The 25 startups selected for the program are:
Agarea (Australia): Simplifying crop insurance and seasonal finance for farming businesses.
Atolla Tech (US): Automating the integrated pest management process to increase crop quality.
Biome Makers (US): Specialising in microbiome understanding to provide analysis for agricultural and industrial processes.
Blomso (US): Soil sensing technology to reduce waste and boost crop yields.
Convergent Bio (US): Creating human medicine bio-delivery tech for plant health.
Excarta (US): Using AI to reduce insurance losses caused by catastrophic weather.
Gripp (US): Providing a platform for farmers to track operations and centralising on-farm communication.
Ground Truth Agriculture (Canada): Automating grain grading from farm to destination.
KoraLabs (Switzerland): A data platform for agricultural input manufacturers.
M4Life (Argentina): The first microorganism training technology to boost and enhance biological inputs.
NAXSolutions (Spain) Optimizing agricultural production through AI-driven precision agriculture, helping farmers increase yields and reduce costs.
Newwave Biotech (Australia): Powering plants’ microbiomes.
NutriSen (Germany): Real-time nutrient-sensing for smart fertilisation.
Upside Robotics (US): AI scout and spray swarm system robots that eliminate the guesswork in nitrogen management.
AlgaeBioMas (Argentina): Culturing microalgae to improve human and animal health.
ControlPoint Inc. (US): Diagnostic tests to improve animal health.
Earthodic (US): Creating sustainable, functional barrier coatings for paper-based packaging.
Hinalea Imaging (US): Develops intelligent hyperspectral imaging solutions to enhance and automate complex agrifood inspection processes.
HT Vet (Israel): Rules out cancer in lumps and bumps, non-invasively within two minutes, and without taking an FNA or a biopsy.
Medipups (US): Science-backed pet supplements.
MicroHarvest GmbH (Germany and Portugal): Delivering better protein ingredients to achieve resilient food systems.
Natáur (US): Converting high-value sulfur synthetics to healthy biologicals.
ProPetDX Inc. (US): Accessible, actionable tests for early cancer detection and other critical diseases.
Queva (Canada): Wearable technology for pets’ preventive care.
SnapDNA (US): Streamlined food supply chain, saving the US food industry $90bn per year.
“All good things take time—and that includes relationships and innovation,” said Plug and Play Topeka director Lindsay Lebahn.
“With this new programme and the intentionality behind the structuring and the sourcing, I’m excited about the potential this programme can offer for the relationships between startups and our corporate partners and how the new aspects will allow us to increase our engagement with other ecosystem players.”
Topeka is centrally located within the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, the world’s largest concentration of animal health companies and related industries. More than 300 animal health companies located between Manhattan, Kansas, and Columbia, Missouri, including four of the top 10 animal health companies in the world, generate 56% of the total animal health, diagnostics and pet food sold globally, totaling $21.5bn in annual sales.
“GO Topeka and Plug and Play Topeka have been instrumental in fostering growth and innovation in the animal health and agtech sectors, which is propelling economic development in Topeka and the surrounding region,” said SVP of innovation for GO Topeka, Stephanie Moran.
Since its start in the spring of 2021, more than 100 startups have graduated from the Plug and Play Topeka accelerator programme. Each year, the programme will develop two accelerator groups comprising 10-15 animal health and ag-tech startups.
