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Wells Fargo Picks 5 Indoor Ag Companies For Its Latest Innovation Incubator Program
Five early-stage indoor agriculture companies will participate in the ninth cohort of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), which works with cleantech companies and entrepreneurs across food and housing sectors
By Jennifer Marston
July 8, 2021
Five early-stage indoor agriculture companies will participate in the ninth cohort of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), which works with cleantech companies and entrepreneurs across food and housing sectors. Chosen participants for this cohort will focus on tools and processes that can make indoor farming more environmentally and financially sustainable.
The Wells Fargo Foundation funds the program, which is co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Indoor ag has seen some major milestones and investments in 2021, but whether its a truly sustainable endeavor (financially and environmentally) remains a hotly debated topic. For example, growing greens inside fully controlled environments like vertical farms might cut down on inputs like land and water usage, but an enormous amount of energy is needed to run a farm off fully on artificial lighting. (Greenhouses, because they use natural sunlight, are usually a different story.) Additionally, leafy greens are still the only crop large-scale vertical farms can grow in huge quantities, and from a calorie perspective, salad can’t fully feed a growing world population.
Claire Kinlaw, director of Innovation Commercialization at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, said in a statement today that this year’s cohort is “focused on validating technologies that address key challenges in the indoor agriculture industry, including environmentally and financially sustainable ways to deliver light, control growth environments, evaluate environmental impacts and solve the need for crop varieties that are well-adapted for indoor environments.”
Companies chosen for the program address these issues and others:
Atlas Sensor Technologies monitors water hardness in real-time to reduce waste and cost of water and improve how water softeners operate
GrowFlux makes intelligent horticulture lighting via an IoT platform the company says can save 20-30 percent in energy costs
Motorleaf specializes in AI for indoor ag in order to give growers information around yields and carbon footprint
New West Genetics does genomics-assisted breeding for the hemp industry
SunPath uses patented fiber optics tech to improve lighting for indoor farms
All participants will receive up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding from Wells Fargo. Over a 12 to 18 month period, companies will conduct research and development at NREL and at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
FREE WEBINAR: CEO Panelists To Discuss "How To Get Indoor Farm Up and Running" on July 22, 2020 @ 2 PM EST
Whether just starting out or looking for fresh new ideas to bolster a current operation, the CEO panelists joining the July 22, 2020, Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series from Indoor Ag-Con will offer participants a wealth of business-building ideas to get a farm going and growing
Leaders From Kalera, Vertical Harvest, Artesian Farms, & Danforth Plant Science Center Join Indoor Ag-Conversations Webinar Series
LAS VEGAS (July 13, 2020) –Whether just starting out or looking for fresh new ideas to bolster a current operation, the CEO panelists joining the July 22, 2020, Indoor Ag-Conversations free webinar series from Indoor Ag-Con will offer participants a wealth of business-building ideas to get a farm going and growing. Moderated by Claire Kinlaw, Director of Innovation Commercialization, The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, "How To Get An Indoor Farm Up & Running" webinar panelists include Daniel Malechuk, CEO, Kalera; Nona Yehia, CEO & Co-Founder, Vertical Harvest; and Milan Kluko, CEO, Artesian Farms LLC.
During the 60-minute session, the panel will cover a number of topics and issues like:
Crops: types, traits, sourcing
Customers: profiles, targets, buying interests
Selling: direct to consumer, distributors, grocery chains
Technology: what’s best suited for geography, crop, scales of production
Founding Team Skills: technical, agronomic, sales/marketing, biology/genetics
CapEx – How and where to access funds to get established
Indoor Ag-Conversation webinars are free to industry members. To register for the upcoming July 22, 2020 session, visit www.indoor.ag/webinar. Indoor Ag-Conversations presenters include:
Claire Kinlaw, Director of Innovation Commercialization, Danforth Plant Science Center --Claire combines science research and business knowledge along with experience with startup companies to support commercialization of innovative technologies in agriculture. She began work at the Danforth Center in February of 2019. She promotes the commercial impact of the Center’s intellectual property through such activities as patent filing, license agreements, and oversite for an innovation incubation program (IN2, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation). IN2 accelerates early-stage agriculture technologies into the market through the execution of validating research for companies in collaboration with the Danforth Center.
Daniel Malechuk, CEO, Kalera -- A food industry veteran, Daniel Malechuk has spent his career managing and growing several of the world’s leading food, grocery, and produce companies. As a leader in the industry, Daniel has worked in both sales and supply chain optimization and has built sustainability programs for companies such as Shamrock Foods, Kalera HyCube, Keysource Foods, and ALDI. While at Shamrock Foods, Malechuk led the retail division and drove explosive revenue and profitability growth and expansion across the Southwest. Daniel also served as Vice President at Keysource Foods, where he led company strategy and sales operations and negotiated contracts with some of the world’s largest food companies, including ConAgra, Carnival Corporation, PF Chang’s, ALDI, and Sysco.
Nona Yehia, Co-Founder & CEO, Vertical Harvest -- Nona Yehia is uniquely positioned in the vertical farming sphere. She is at once a practicing Architect and the Co-Founder and CEO of the 1st vertical hydroponic greenhouse in the United States. Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole is a cutting-edge commercial-scale greenhouse that not only grows food for communities, in communities~ but futures for those who need it most.
Following her passion for local food and experiences growing up with a brother with developmental disabilities, Nona conceived of a three-story hydroponic greenhouse that employs people with developmental disabilities while producing local food for the community year-round. In 2016 Vertical Harvest opened its doors.
Milan Kluko, CEO & Co-Founder, Artesian Farms LLC & Berrien Processing Solutions (BPS) -- Milan Kluko has been in the environmental engineering, alternative energy, agriculture, and solid waste industry as an engineering consultant, developer, vendor, and technology supplier for 38 years. For nearly four decades he has worked on developing recycling and solid waste reduction programs, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and low impact development projects worldwide. From 2001-2015 Mr. Kluko worked on worldwide projects as a sustainability consultant for the Coca Cola Company. During the past several decades his focus has been primarily on “project-based” assignments gaining significant expertise with a wide variety of environmental, agriculture, alternative energy, and recycling systems starting in 1982.
Indoor Ag-Con LLC created the new Indoor Ag-Conversations series to share content originally planned for its May 2020 in-person annual conference that was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. More details on the upcoming and future sessions, as well as recordings of previous webinars, are available at www.indoor.ag/webinar.
ABOUT INDOOR AG-CON LLC
Founded in 2013, Indoor Ag-Con touches all sectors of the business, covering produce, legal cannabis, hemp, alternate protein, and non-food crops. In December 2018, three event industry professionals – Nancy Hallberg, Kris Sieradzki, and Brian Sullivan – purchased Indoor Ag-Con LLC, setting the stage for further expansion of the events globally. For more information, visit: www.indoor.ag