Ag Innovation Showcase

ST. LOUIS (DTN) -- The Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis is used to growing plants, but this week, the center turned its meeting rooms and lobby into an incubator for a different life form -- dozens of young agricultural start-ups, eager to grow into legitimate companies.

The sixth annual Ag Innovation Showcase, hosted by the Danforth Center and Larta Institute, brought in 415 attendees this year -- a potent mix of entrepreneurs, investors, and representatives from agricultural corporations, universities and government agencies.

Out of more than 100 applications from agricultural start-ups, 20 budding companies were selected to present the showcase with their ideas for new agricultural products, ranging from data tools to microbial products and new oil crops. At the end of each presentation, the start-ups presented their funding needs and financial plan and then fielded the comments, questions and concerns of potential investors.

Rohit Shukla, CEO of Larta Institute, which founded the Ag Innovation Showcase in 2009, said the presenting companies at the conference this year highlighted an industry "that's clearly going in the direction of very sophisticated precision agricultural innovations and biologicals."

"Agriculture is changing dramatically," he told DTN. "The farmer is going to be encountering an embarrassment of riches right now. They really need to pay attention to how technologies are evolving and who is doing it."

Some of the burgeoning companies, such as an oilseed company called Arvegenix staffed largely by former Monsanto executives, are headed by veteran entrepreneurs with strong ties to large agricultural corporations. Others, like a University of Missouri professor's aerial nitrogen assessment company, are their leaders' first business ventures.

Here's a sample of the presenting companies:

Squall: This Dutch company hopes to expand the market for its spray additive, which has seen success in the Netherlands, into the U.S. and European countries like Germany and France. Bonn claims the company's biodegradable, FDA-approved polymer coating can reduce spray drift by 90%, sticks to seeds five times better than competitors and can keep 50% more of herbicide product on the plant after rainfall events.

Arvegenix: CEO and former Monsanto executive Vijay Chauhan wants farmers to plant a winter annual plant called pennycress on their acres during the idle fall-spring period of a corn and soybean rotation. In exchange for the use of their acres, the company is offering to supply growers with seed, inputs, and the planting and harvesting of the oilseed, which it will sell to biodiesel and industrial oil processors. The company is targeting Midwestern states like Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio with a goal of one million acres by 2019.

Agrisoma: This seed company is presenting another oilseed crop, a mustard species called Brassica Carinata. The company is marketing the crop as a viable rotation option for commodity farmers in Canada and the U.S. Carinata's seed will be channeled through Patterson Grain elevators and can be processed for biodiesel and a high-protein meal for cattle feeders. With two years of commercial production on 10,000 acres under its belt, the company is marketing two commercial varieties this year.

Kultevat: Using Russian dandelions, this company hopes to supplant the Southeast Asian monopoly on rubber production in time to offset an industry-expected rubber shortage starting in 2016. The dandelions can be grown in most of the U.S. and the company uses retrofitted sugarbeet processors to produce the rubber and its co-product, fermentable sugar syrup. Contracts are already in place for growers in the U.S. and Australia this year.

NVision Ag: University of Missouri plant scientist Peter Scharf hopes to launch an aerial nitrogen assessment company for farmers. The company would take mid-season aerial photos of fields from the air, and use patented algorithms to produce yield-loss maps and custom-rate nitrogen application maps based on the coloring of the crops.

Cross Slot No-Tillage System: Baker No-Tillage has produced a no-till planter that places seeds in a horizontal slot. The company claims this seeding placement vastly improves emergence and yields compared to conventional V-shaped and vertical slot placements. Cross Slot sells their planters in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and various European countries.

Shukla said a record number of investors attended the showcase this year, a boon for the young start-ups in need of partners and guidance.

"Four out of five people that came to this showcase found partnerships leads as a result of the showcase, and 97% of the companies found new investor leads as a result of the conference," Shukla noted of past showcases. Showcase organizers estimate that presenting companies have raised a combined $330 million after the showcase over its lifetime.

Christine Tamer, an investment analyst with a Boston-based firm called Invested Development, said this is her company's second trip to the showcase. "The companies are really what attract us -- we want to see what start-ups are working on," she told DTN. "We want to invest in technology companies that help farmers become more efficient and productive, and we're leaving with some good leads."

See a full list of the presenting agricultural start-up companies at the Ag Innovation Showcase website: http://goo.gl/…

Emily Unglesbee can be reached at emily.unglesbee@dtn.com

Follow Emily Unglesbee on Twitter @Emily_Unglesbee

(PS/CZ)

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