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Local Charlottesville, VA Startup Is Changing The Vegetable-Growing Game
August 29, 2018
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR)
A Charlottesville startup with big plans to change the way people get their vegetables is blossoming within the community.
By creating a system that allows the user to grow all their own produce quickly and efficiently, Babylon Microfarms is making it so people and restaurants are now enjoying fresher vegetables at lower costs.
Babylon Microfarms installed one of its hydroponic systems at Charlottesville's Three Notch'd Brewery two weeks ago and has a couple of other big projects in the works as well.
“It uses water and nutrients and plants are able to grow twice as quickly using up to 95 percent less water than conventional agriculture so we can grow a really high amount of produce in a small area,” said founder and CEO of Babylon Microfarms Alexander Olesen.
According to Olesen, they send everything pre-seeded to the user, so a restaurant’s chef wouldn’t have to worry about any farming or gardening. The only thing the user is responsible for his planting and harvesting the crops.
“It’s great to be out seeing these out with customers, seeing them enjoying the produce,” Olesen said.
The product is easy to use and provides places like Three Notch'd with Monticello bib lettuce for salads and many more leafy greens. The executive chef at Tree Notch’d Patrick Carroll said the system allows them to grow a lot of different microgreens, which are “great for flavors and garnishing.”
“It just really pulls a great ‘wow’ factor to the guests coming in,” Carroll said. “It’s a focal point of the restaurant. It’s just a wonderful product.”
This week, six of the restaurant’s menu items incorporate the produce grown in-house, and that number is expected to increase in the coming weeks.
Babylon Microfarms also has deals in place to install similar systems at UVA’s O-Hill Dining Hall as well as the Boar’s Head Resort. Olesen said he’s excited because Boar’s Head Resort’s recent renovation project allows them to make a larger commercial installation that will make their restaurant completely self sufficient in salad. According to Olesen, Boar’s Head would be the first in North American to have their own private hydroponic farm.
“It definitely sets you apart from everybody else,” Carroll said. “People come in and the first thing they see is that you’re really doing local seasonal even though you define the season with this because you can grow anything year-round.”
Babylon Microfarms is also working on a smaller-scale hydroponic unit that can be used in any home. The goal is for that unit to debut within the next year.
5 years, 60 Startups: Purdue Students Own Their Inventions, Thriving Under University’s Policy
Scott Massey and Ivan Ball, 2017 graduates of Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute and founders of Heliponix LLC, say the reassessment in Purdue intellectual property rights that gives students ownership of their inventions motivated them to found their startup.
September 6, 2018
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – From frozen yogurt to musical backtracks to social apps and even hydroponic in-home greenhouses, Purdue University students are taking advantage of Purdue’s policy giving them ownership when they, as students, create an invention, generating a flurry of startups that advance the lives of others.
Scott Massey and Ivan Ball, 2017 graduates of Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute and founders of Heliponix LLC, say the reassessment in Purdue intellectual property rights that gives students ownership of their inventions motivated them to found their startup.
Scott Massey, Heliponix LLC chief executive officer, examines the development of plants growing in a GroPod, a dishwasher-sized appliance that fits under a kitchen counter and grows produce year-round. Heliponix was among five companies selected to receive $80,000 investments from the Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund. (Chris Adam/Purdue Research Foundation Image) Download image
“We definitely took the leap to found our startup because we liked the idea of owning our own technology, and it has been an unbelievable experience both in learning and contributing to society,” Massey said. “Being able to take our knowledge and technology to West Africa is something I will never forget. I also would never have believed that I would be a co-founder of a startup that is doing so well. A lot of credit goes to the Purdue Foundry and Purdue University for the strong support system they provide for student entrepreneurs. We’ve just learned so much.”
Heliponix’s technology, called the Gropod™ is a refrigerator-sized aeroponic appliance capable of growing fresh produce in a consumer’s home. While in the West African country of Togo, Massey co-led a workshop on hydroponic systems to help participants develop sustainable agriculture methods in an undeveloped environment.
Scott Massey (center, with sunglasses), a founder of Heliponix LLC, poses with residents of Togo who took part in a hands-on workshop on hydroponics in the small West Africa country, where many people survive on subsistence farming. The workshop was funded by the Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange Component. (Photo provided by Heliponix)
Heliponix is one of about 60 student-driven startups that launched since Purdue University announced five years ago that students could own their own intellectual property. The student startups also have generated more than $2.5 million in venture funding, business plan competitions and startup grants.
Mimir, a software company committed to growing the software engineering workforce, is one of the first student startups to work with the Purdue Foundry to research and obtain intellectual property ownership.
Shortly after Mimir was founded, the team worked in the Anvil, a Purdue student incubator, while also receiving assistance from the Purdue Foundry. In 2015, Mimir's co-founders were accepted into Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, an investment group that aids promising startups to shape their ideas and prepares them for larger fundraising. After spending the summer in Silicon Valley for the program, the co-founders returned to Indiana.
“During our time at the Anvil we were actively planning for the future of Mimir,” said Prahasith Veluvolu, CEO of Mimir. “With help from partners like the Foundry, we learned how to legally possess our intellectual property so that we could shift our focus toward enhancing our product in an effort to better support our customers.”
The company has been nationally recognized for Mimir Classroom, its flagship product, and in 2017 Forbes chose co-founders Colton Voege, Jacobi Petrucciani and Veluvolu for its annual “30 Under 30” list of exceptional innovators under the age of 30. All three are former computer science students in Purdue’s College of Science.
Mimir Classroom continues to help computer science instructors with the delivery of their curriculum at more than 70 universities. Earlier this year, in an effort to further the company's mission, Mimir Workforce was created. This technical assessment tool helps hiring managers and recruiters evaluate and hire software engineers for internal roles.
Representatives from Mimir are currently attending the TechCrunch Disrupt SF Conference in San Francisco.
The strategic goal of fostering a culture of entrepreneurship for students was paramount in the modification in students’ intellectual property ownership.
Mimir co-founders, from left, Colton Voege, Jacobi Petrucciani and Prahasith Veluvolu. (Photo provided by Mimir)
“We set out to build the nation’s best ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship, and granting our undergraduates the control of intellectual property seemed like a positive cultural signal,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said. “It’s turned out to be far more than symbolic, as 60 startup companies demonstrate. At Purdue, we believe you’re never too young to start a business.”
The Purdue Foundry, created in 2013, offers entrepreneurial assistance and startup funding to students, faculty and staff. Services include office mentoring, funding, educational opportunities, networking, marketing and business competitions.
“Our core value is ideas to impact, and whether a technology is owned by a student or one that is licensed through Purdue's Office of Technology Commercialization we offer the same high level of entrepreneurial assistance,” said Greg Deason, senior vice president for entrepreneurship and placemaking at the Purdue Research Foundation. “Many of the students creating startups are also creating a career path for their futures.”
The Purdue intellectual property guidelines offer students clear ownership rights as long as the resources used were part of a course and were available to all students in the course; that the student was not paid by the university or a third party; and the class or project was not supported by a corporation or government grant or contract.
In 2013, the Anvil was established with support by the Purdue Research Foundation and managed by Purdue students to provide an incubator for student startups.
“The Anvil now has 157 members,” said Juliana Casavan, entrepreneurial program manager, who provides guidance and entrepreneurial programming for the Anvil. “Since the Anvil was founded it has become a hub of entrepreneurial activities for students who have the motivation and desire to create a startup.”
The increase in technology transfer activities and startup creation aligns with Purdue's “Giant Leaps” Ideas Festival celebrating the university’s global advancements made in health, space, artificial intelligence and sustainability as part of Purdue’s 150th anniversary.
About Mimir
Mimir is a software company that grows the software engineering workforce. The company's core product, Mimir Classroom, helps computer science instructors scale and automate curriculum without compromising quality for students. Mimir Workforce was a supplemental product built to house a technical assessment tool for evaluating and hiring engineers. For more information about Mimir, call 317-449-3517 or visit www.mimirhq.com.
About The Anvil
The Anvil is a Purdue University student-managed startup incubator that assists students with 24/7 office space with Internet access, networking opportunities, and conference rooms. The Anvil receives funding from the Purdue Research Foundation and other sources.
About Purdue Foundry
The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. Managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Foundry was co-named a top recipient at the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation and Awards Program by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.
Writer: Cynthia Sequin, 765-588-3340. casequin@prf.org
Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu
Prahasith Veluvolu, 317-449-3517, prahasith@mimirhq.com
Scott Massey, scott@heliponix.com
Greg Deason, gwdeason@prf.org
Juliana Casavan, jbcasavan@prf.org
"Universal Paper Provides Fragile Roots Excellent Protection"
At this year's IPM in Essen, Ellepot introduced their new Universal paper. Ellepot are stocking up on their newly developed paper, after many customers report that the paper is doing well when it comes to root development and protection of fragile root tips.
The new product is characterized by a special “diamond” pattern so that the paper on one side has fine tiny small holes, and, on the other side, a fine netting ensuring that soil and dirt does not escape the paper.
“The Universal Paper has one of the best air flows of the papers we produce. We’ve made the pattern clearer, opening up the paper to allow them a significantly larger amount of air to pass through the pot. The result is that Ellepot Universal provides fragile roots an excellent protection and let roots grow perfectly through after transplanting minimizing transplant shock”, CEO Lars Steen Pedersen explains.
Perfect for plant out cultures
The new product is based on all-natural and environmental friendly wood fibres, sourced from responsibly harvested FSC certified forests. This means that the Universal paper is certified according to multiple industry standards such as RainForest Alliance, FSC and Veriflora. Combined with a relative short decomposing time of 6-9 months makes Ellepot Universal ideal for almost all types of crops and very useful for frequent plant out cultures.
Highlights and benefits of Ellepot Universal:
Special “diamond” pattern
Perfect root development and excellent protection
Roots grow perfectly through after transplanting
Short decomposing time of 6-9 months
Comes in brown color
You can experience the Universal Paper at Ellepot USA's booth 3018 & 3025 at the Cultivate Ohio this weekend.
For more information:
Ellepot
info@ellepot.dk
www.ellepot.com
Publication date: 7/13/2018
Miniature Greenhouse Enters Star Restaurant Kitchens
In 2015, a group of Dutch entrepreneurs started designing a greenhouse. And not just any greenhouse, a greenhouse that would bring the consumer into contact with the cultivation of vegetables and herbs. Meanwhile, there are mini-greenhouses at various locations, including at star restaurants but also with private individuals. It was also recently announced that the greenhouse is going abroad. A pilot has been started in a restaurant in Berlin. Bart van Meurs, Kweecker: "Placing a Kweecker in a city like Berlin is something very different from delivering and installing one myself somewhere in the Netherlands within an hour.
'Kweecker at Bolenius Restaurant* Amsterdam'
What developments has Kweecker experienced in recent years?
"The Kweecker has undergone a major development since the start in 2015. The first version was only suitable for outdoor use, but it was fully equipped with all the techniques that are also applied in larger greenhouses. The mini-greenhouse was equipped with LED lighting as well as irrigation and ventilation. Based on feedback from the first users, a second generation was developed that was even more compact and also suitable for inside use. The greenhouse is now controlled remotely thanks to a climate computer and a smartphone app."
Kweecker explicitly seeks the link with the greenhouse horticulture sector. Has that been successful from the start?
"Yes and no. In the development of the Kweecker we have extensively made use of our position in the middle of the Westland horticulture sector. For example, it may concern companies from the sector that act as suppliers of specific components or knowledge for the development of the software or the running of tests. There are also various 'green' companies that have purchased a Kweecker. Finally, there are the suppliers of plants, cuttings, seeds and all other required cultivation materials to our end users.
Nevertheless, we would like to increase the idea of 'Westland in a box'. After all, Kweecker, as a product-oriented local grower, really comes from the heart of Dutch horticulture. Parties that want to get involved are most welcome. This, of course, can be in the area of hardware and software, know-how or consumables, and certainly in the field of sales and marketing. We are specifically looking for parties with whom we can collaborate in those areas. Commercially it is time for a next step, where we as technicians see that we need strong parties from the sector."
Therefore also the step abroad?
"In order to make Kweecker a success commercially, a next step is needed with a strong partner. But we do not want to limit ourselves to the Netherlands, we are looking where the demand lies. In the case of this pilot, the possibility of co-operating with a strong multinational (Kweecker is part of the NX Food start-up program of the Metro Group) is found in Berlin, a metropolis where there is a lot of attention for green, locally grown and fresh."
What are your expectations for your first international pilot? And what is the purpose of the pilot?
"We want to explore how Kweecker fits Metro Group. As part of the assortment for their high segment cash & carries or more focused on services, but also a more intensive collaboration, such as participation/venture capital, is a possibility. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for us to discover the practical side of doing business abroad. To place a Kweecker in a city like Berlin is a lot different than delivering and installing a unit myself somewhere in the Netherlands in, say, an hour. Packaging, logistics, installation and remote service, issues that we tackle through this pilot."
What are the newest techniques applied in this pilot?
"It concerns mainly a lot of small, practical improvements that we have learned from our first users. The biggest improvement being the climate computer. ‘Under the bonnet’ we have developed a completely new hardware that greatly simplifies production and improves reliability."
Where is your future? In the catering industry or also outside of that?
"We see gastronomy as a sector that presents itself as a forerunner when it comes to experiencing fresh. This certainly will remain our most important target group. Besides, gastronomy is a wonderful shop window for the consumer. Look at a product such as Big Green Egg; known from top chefs, but now also present in the garden of many consumers."
For more information:
Kweecker
www.kweecker.nl
info@kweecker.nl
Heliponix Tackling Global Food Crisis With Household Appliance
Heliponix Tackling Global Food Crisis With Household Appliance
When Scott Massey’s dreams of a tropical internship dried up in the Texas dust, a bigger dream materialized. The Evansville native and Ivan Ball of Owensville founded Heliponix to tackle the challenge of global food insecurity through their GroPod appliance. The problem, as Massey explains it, is this: “We already allocate 50 percent of American land use and 80 percent of our freshwater consumption to agriculture, but the United Nations is predicting we need to increase global food outputs by 70 percent by 2050 to avoid a global food crisis.”
To help them go after their idea, they pursued funding through the Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund. Heliponix received an Elevate-funded $20,000 Black Award in 2017 and an $80,000 Gold Award in May 2018.
Massey’s telling of how the two-man Southwest Indiana team uncovered the root of the problem, developed a marketable solution, and are gaining financial momentum and credibility is an entrepreneurial story many founders will relate to and can learn from.
Tell me your business story so far. How did you get where you are with Heliponix?
I was introduced to CEA (controlled environmental agriculture) in 2017 at Purdue University during my junior year as a mechanical engineering student. Ivan Ball and I were working on a NASA-funded research study under Dr. Cary Mitchell. CEA is a hydroponic farming technique that is three times faster and uses 95 percent less water year-round than conventional farming. There were still a number of technical hurdles to be overcome for this technology to have a meaningful impact in yields of food production, the largest being the outrageous energy cost. The indoor lighting needs prevented indoor agriculture from being a financially viable enterprise without dependence on government subsidies.
After coming to grips with the unfortunate reality that the technology wasn’t ready for mass adoption, I went to the career fairs at Purdue looking for a summer internship. I thought I had finally gotten my break after receiving an internship offer as a project engineer in Hawaii. Although the location on the contract I signed said “TBD,” I was told the final details of my housing arrangements were being finalized — I was dumb enough to believe that.
I was instead reassigned to renovate Section 8 government housing in El Paso, Texas, along the border to Juarez, Mexico. My primary responsibility was to oversee a Spanish-speaking workforce for labor jobs such as toxic asbestos removal. Many of the workers had previous gang affiliations, and narcotic use was rampant. The section of El Paso I managed was called the Angel’s Triangle, situated between the Franklin Mountains, the US Army’s Fort Bliss, and a border wall to Mexico. This portion of town was originally called the “devil’s triangle” due to the gang activity, narcotics, and prostitution.
The city of El Paso is a desert in more ways than one — it’s also a food desert.
Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about my reassignment from Hawaii at first, but it was a very enlightening experience that I’m glad I went through. The city of El Paso is a desert in more ways than one — it’s also a food desert. A food desert is where a low-income, inner-city area is so far away from grocery stores with fresh food that the residents resort to fast food for every meal. The result? Higher obesity rates and health complications. I began to ask myself, “Why do food deserts exist?” The simple answer is that low-income areas aren’t profitable places to run a business, such as a grocery store. However, the root reason behind this is much more complex. I began to look into why fresh food was too expensive for these food deserts, and the results were alarming. Farming is very expensive in terms of resource consumption, and it’s the consumer who ends up paying the price.
In the United States, we throw away 40 percent of the produce grown. What’s most alarming is that we’re producing at capacity, but we’re failing to deliver before it perishes because food goes bad over time. I realized that food deserts could be the tip of an iceberg that would only become more common as urban centers grow with the human population.
It was at this moment that I truly became aware of the perpetual cycle of food deserts.
- Residents are placed into government housing in a food desert.
- Residents become obese due to poor food options nearby.
- Residents become more dependent on government funding for medical care for obesity-related health complications.
If the funding existed to purchase these appliances, would it be so crazy to think that an appliance that could grow fresh produce could break this cycle?
The cycle was ironic. We were installing brand new appliances in government housing complexes, and shipping out the functional appliances. If the funding existed to purchase these appliances, would it be so crazy to think that an appliance that could grow fresh produce could break this cycle? What if a recurring revenue business model could be built on subscriptions to seed pods? That’s when my fire was truly lit. I began researching prior art patents, existing products, and meticulously cataloging customer complaints for competing devices on the market to devise a turnkey appliance that grew food with the same level of maintenance as a Keurig coffee machine.
I discovered that there was a flood of cheap novelty devices in the market that served more as decorations than useful products that actually gave the user legitimate yields. Essentially, they were flower pots disguised as “groundbreaking devices” that required users to buy their own lights and HVAC equipment. Additionally, many of these low-quality products — some made of cardboard — had major food safety concerns because of the cheap materials that acted as perfect growing mediums for toxic E. coli or fungi.
This highlighted the importance that the world did not need another decorative flower pot, but instead needed an appliance that serves as an automated, miniature greenhouse. This would be no small undertaking. The knowledge requirement for design for manufacturability, software architecture, electrical engineering, fluid mechanics and industrial design was steep. Although Ivan and I were capital poor when we founded the company, we were rich in ambition and human capital at our disposal at Purdue.
What have been some pivotal moments in the development of Heliponix so far?
We’re competing with the financials of soil and sun farming, so what became the Heliponix GroPod had to be very energy efficient to be cost competitive. In my research, I discovered that vertical farms were the only financially viable method. We needed to be able to place a vertical aeroponic tower inside of a miniature greenhouse, and the tower had to rotate, with plants accessible 360 degrees around it.
I filed multiple utility patents on this concept we affectionately call “rotary aeroponics” (now a trademarked name). During our growth trials, we thought we were miscalculating our growth rates. Our device demonstrated a 300 percent increase in efficiency compared to other factory farms and was 500 times more efficient than conventional soil farming, which is typically limited to one harvest a year. These results that have been repeated time and again.
Our first break occurred when we unexpectedly won our first business plan competition at Ball State University in the fall of 2017. After walking away with a nondilutable $5,000 check, I asked myself, “Why stop?” Ivan and I applied to every business plan competition we could find, and were featured at the Forbes AgTech Summit. To date, we have won under close to $200K in funding from business plan competitions in the form of grants or convertible note investments.
Some figures in the entrepreneurial space looked down at us for not raising a massive investment round. But after solving all technical hurdles, and selling the first GroPods, we’ve proven that this isn’t necessary. I’m a firm believer in bootstrapping a startup until the critical mass has been established. Nondilutive funding mechanisms or convertible debts were a much better strategy for Heliponix. Revenue is truly the cheapest form of capital.
The moment I began eating most of my own food from my GroPod was the inflection point that I realized we would be OK, and we were ready for sales.
However, this wasn’t achieved without extreme commitment and emotional testing to overcome all technical hurdles. The worst problems in a product design are long-term problems that only occur after several months of continual use because you thought it wasn’t a problem anymore. Fortunately, our perseverance paid off by not quitting. The moment I began eating most of my own food from my GroPod was the inflection point that I realized we would be OK, and we were ready for sales.
What do you think the value is of having resources like Elevate in Southwest Indiana?
The primary reason we’ve been able to launch Heliponix without a major investment to date is because of our ability to leverage our network. Eric Steele [Elevate Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Southwest Indiana] has made instrumental introductions to former Whirlpool engineers who possessed an intimate understanding of appliances with fluid control systems, among many other influential business developers. At times in our product development process, we felt lost. While we had the skills to make a physical product, a simple conversation with an individual rich in intellectual capital proved to be incredibly valuable.
The Purdue@WestGate [an economic development accelerator formed by the partnership between WestGate Authority, Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division (NSWC Crane), Purdue University and Purdue Research Foundation] location and Innovation Pointe are the two of the most overlooked resources for starting a business to make all of these introductions and find funding mechanisms for new businesses.
Why focus on a problem that seems far in the relative future? Why is it important or interesting to tackle a huge problem like global hunger?
My biggest fear is a life played safe, wondering what could have happened if an opportunity was pursued fully.
Working in Texas was a lower point in my career. I woke up one day and could see my entire career in front of me doing the exact same job until the end of my life. At that moment, I asked myself, “Would I be happy on the day I die with the life I lived in this career?” The answer was no, and I realized I had a unique opportunity to risk failure for the opportunity to change the world for the better. My biggest fear is a life played safe, wondering what could have happened if an opportunity was pursued fully.
The timing couldn’t have been any better for a product that makes consumers self-sufficient for produce production. Droughts and food safety concerns are predicted to become much worse with a growing population expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 — an additional 3 billion humans. I was always aware of the daunting task to bring the GroPod to market, but I also knew that the world needed a practical solution to food insecurity, and our persistence would pay off.
Entry into the mainstream agriculture marketplace is daunting. The discussion of food insecurity has become political with polarized sides offering biased data vs. anecdotal evidence. Agriculture (one of the oldest professions) is ripe for disruption and requires an outsider’s perspective to design an entirely new solution that eliminates the entire supply chain in an industry that is inherently resistant to change.
To put this in perspective, we already allocate 50 percent of American land use and 80 percent of our freshwater consumption to agriculture, but the United Nations is predicting we need to increase global food outputs by 70 percent by 2050 to avoid a global food crisis. The California drought was caused by the sheer volume of water consumption for its massive, growing population. At Heliponix, we see this as an opportunity to thrust mankind into the third generation of agriculture of farming appliances as we begin to hit the guard rails of the human population limit.
Food insecurity is not a future problem. I have personally seen the overwhelming evidence in the food deserts plaguing inner city areas in the USA, and children suffering from extreme malnutrition while working overseas in West Africa to build low-cost hydroponic farms. I strongly encourage anyone skeptical about this to accompany me on my next trip to Africa, or volunteer at a local food pantry. It has been a challenge to convince decision makers in the U.S. that famines are not unique to the developing world, but it is difficult to convince someone to invest in water conservation technologies who has never experienced a drought. A population explosion combined with drought could just as easily put a developed nation into a food insecure state.
Fortunately for us, I don’t need to convince most decision makers of the facts. What we focus on is selling a product to solve food deserts one home at a time as a scalable solution. In the not-so-distant future, we will have scaled to solve an entire city’s food desert with our current business trajectory.
To learn more about Heliponix and GroPods, visit heliponix.com. To reach the Entrepreneur-in-Residence in your region, contact Elevate Ventures.
"PRODUCT SHOWCASE" Revolutionizing Agriculture With Household Appliances | Scott Massey | TEDxWabashCollege
Revolutionizing Agriculture With Household Appliances | Scott Massey | TEDxWabashCollege
Published on Jun 8, 2018
With a rapidly growing population and the flawed design of agriculture, concerns rise about how to feed the global population in 2050. Using innovation, experience, and hydroponics, Scott Massey reveals a new way to grow certain vegetables within the comfort of your own home.
Scott Massey designed refinement systems in the oil and natural gas industry as a mechanical engineer and made patent drawings for a local patent attorney.
He then teamed up with a fellow Purdue research student to design a hydroponic plant growth chamber to grow food in future space colonies. Wanting to make a larger impact he set out to create personal, hydroponic appliances that could yield a full head of leafy greens on a daily basis to eliminate a user's dependence on a grocery store for most produce. Scott Massey (CEO) designed refinement systems in the oil and natural gas industry as a mechanical engineer and made patent drawings for a local patent attorney. Ivan Ball (CTO) worked as an electrical and computer engineer managing production of ethanol at a processing plant.
They met while working as student research engineers at the Purdue University Horticulture College designing a NASA funded, hydroponic plant growth chamber to grow food in future space colonies.
They then set out to create personal, hydroponic appliances that could yield a full head of leafy greens on a daily basis to eliminate a user's dependence on a grocery store for most produce. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Heliponix
Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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Founder of Purdue-Affiliated startup Travels To Africa To teach Togolese About Using Hydroponics For More Sustainable Farming
June 13, 2018
Founder of Purdue-Affiliated startup Travels To Africa To teach Togolese About Using Hydroponics For More Sustainable Farming
A young Togolese boy helps build a hydroponic system during a workshop led by Scott Massey, a founder of Heliponix LLC, and Delia Diabangouaya, quality manager of Choco Togo. The workshops, held at the University of Lome in Togo, sought to help residents of the small West African country create sustainable agriculture methods. (Photo provided) Download image
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A founder of a Purdue University-affiliated startup that makes a kitchen appliance that grows garden vegetables year-round traveled to Africa to lead a hands-on workshop to help residents of Togo, a small West African country, create sustainable agriculture methods.
Scott Massey, a Purdue graduate and founder of Heliponix LLC, and Delia Diabangouaya, quality manager of Choco Togo, the first chocolate production facility in Togo, led the workshop on hydroponic systems at the University of Lome in Togo, Diabangouaya’s alma mater.
Togo, a country that has about 7.5 million residents, is one of the world’s poorest countries, with many people surviving on subsistence farming. It has struggled with capital shortages to purchase irrigation equipment and fertilizers, which in turn, reduces the nation's potential yields.
This has created a need for sustainable agricultural methods that will increase yields without requiring extensive capital investments. Diabangouaya and Massey explored ways they could bring hydroponic technologies from the United States to West Africa.
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants in liquids with the use of soil. Most hydroponic systems are indoors in seasonal climates or outdoors in tropical environments, meaning they can grow produce year-round, using 95 percent less water, and can grow produce three times faster without the use of pesticides if contained.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to share what I know and help the people of Togo,” said Massey, a Purdue University mechanical engineering technology graduate.
Scott Massey (center, with sunglasses), a founder of Heliponix LLC, poses with residents of Togo who took part in a hands-on workshop on hydroponics in the small West Africa country, where many people survive on subsistence farming. The workshop was funded by the Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange Component. (Photo provided) Download image
Massey met Diabangouaya while she was at Purdue University for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, a flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) that empowers young people through academic coursework, leadership training, and networking. They explored ways they could bring hydroponic technologies from the United States to West Africa.
Massey and Diabangouaya sent a proposal to the Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange Component to hold hydroponic technology lectures and workshop builds on the University of Lome campus for students to bring the technology to their homes. Funds were provided to finance Massey’s travel and to buy materials to build the first Heliponix farms in Africa.
Upon arriving in April, Massey quickly learned the challenge of designing outside of the United States because everything in Togo is in metric. He also had no knowledge of what materials were readily available to the average Togolese person in their marketplaces.
“This became a difficult design challenge. If the design I shared had a single part that was unobtainable, then the entire design was worthless, and would have no lasting impact,” Massey said.
He had a preliminary design drafted but needed to get his hands dirty and boots on the ground to make a theoretical design into a practical solution for food insecurity.
“We immediately went to the market, and utilized my network of contacts to find a plumber and students at the International Agricultural Association of Students who knew the landscape and could help negotiate deals for our material purchases. The farm design had to be low-cost, highly productive, and easy to assemble,” Diabangouaya said.
That’s when Massey realized he needed to revise his design.
“I needed a realistic plan that could be scaled across the country. Fortunately, I had a team of farmers, students, and tradesmen to interview to find out more information about their design constraints. Although I left the USA to teach lectures about this technology, I learned more than I could ever teach from those facing the reality of resource consumption,” Massey said.
After procuring materials, Diabangouaya organized lectures at the University of Lome and the Woelab technology incubator, where Massey taught lectures about funding entrepreneurial ventures, 3-D printing and the fundamentals of hydroponics with the help of a translator. They then held workshops for lecture participants of various backgrounds to see a system be physically built.
“I am not fluent in French, so the language barrier made it difficult at times to teach technical concepts,” Massey said. “I was discouraged to see blank faces look back at me as I held up materials for the first workshop, and felt like I was losing the audience’s attention. … Then something amazing happened. Hyppolyte Awadi, the plumber who provided valuable insights for the design stood and began teaching the assembly process the audience.”
Participants pulled out their phones to record the instructions. By the second workshop, Massey and Diabangouaya watched students assemble the next Heliponix farm independently without any oversight.
“The knowledge transfer was complete, and it was clear many farms were to be built long after Scott left,” Diabangouaya said.
Massey said they have open-sourced this design in a complete manual in as many languages as possible.
“This will allow anyone in Africa to build their own system, and improve upon the designs as its user base rapidly expands. This Heliponix system would cost $300 to build, could continue producing crops even when the power goes out, requires four square meters and can grow about 250 kilograms of vegetables on an annual basis.
“Our progress in Africa will not be tracked in dollars earned, but instead the number of mouths fed and lives saved from hunger. Most of the countries in Africa import a significant portion of their food, so this isn’t just an issue of environmental sustainability,” Massey said. “This is a national security threat for these countries if their food supplies are cut, so they need to become independent.”
Purdue Research Foundation contact: Tom Coyne, 765-588-1044, tjcoyne@prf.org
Source: Scott Massey, scott@heliponix.com
AVA Technologies Raises $2.6 Million To Launch A Soilless Smart Garden
BY JESSICA GALANG CANADIAN STARTUP NEWS JUNE 5, 2018
AVA Technologies Raises $2.6 Million To Launch A Soilless Smart Garden
Vancouver-baed AVA Technologies has raised $2.6 million in a seed round meant to support the launch of its smart garden product. The round was led by Vanedge Capital.
This year, AVA plans to launch AVA Byte, which the company calls a “Nespresso machine for gardening.” AVA Byte uses biodegradable soil-less pods filled with seeds and automatically adapts water and lighting based on the plant. Users can track the progress of plants on their phone.
AVA Byte initially launched on Indiegogo in June 2017 and pre-sold over $130,000 worth of gardens.
“With multiple hardware companies in their portfolio, including Vancouver success story Recon Instruments, acquired by Intel for an unconfirmed $175 million, Vanedge is an ideal partner as we scale AVA Byte worldwide,” said Valerie Song, CEO, and co-founder of AVA Technologies. “We’re extremely humbled and excited to have Vanedge as our partner not only to provide us with growth capital and strategic connections but also as proud supporters of the diverse Canadian tech ecosystem.”
AVA Byte can grow tomatoes, herbs, and vegetables, and the company plans to release new crops and product extensions next year.
“AVA Byte is one of the most beautiful innovative and innovative attractive solutions we’ve seen for this rapidly growing market for indoor growing,” said Vanedge Capital in a statement. “With more than 650 units pre-sold through their Indiegogo campaign and strong retail interest, what Valerie and the team have accomplished is extremely truly impressive. While consumer hardware is typically not an investment area of ours, AVA is an outlier with recurring sales, proven demand, and a passionate and diverse founding team.”
Funding Vancouver
Jessica Galang
Jessica Galang is BetaKit's News Editor. Follow her on Twitter @jessicagalangg or send her pitches to jessica.galang@betakit.com. Website Twitter
Purdue Grad Wants His Invention To Reduce Food Deserts
Purdue Grad Wants His Invention To Reduce Food Deserts
May 24, 2018, by Randy Spieth
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – A new appliance for the home could soon get mass produced, allowing owners to grow fresh fruits and vegetables without ever leaving their homes. Scott Massey, the CEO and co-founder of Heliponix, has just unveiled his first GroPod and wants to see it become an appliance to tackle hunger.
A GroPod is a little smaller than a standard dishwasher or oven. It uses hydroponic technology to grow seed pods, similar to single-serve coffee containers.
“When you buy a pod for it, and you plug it in, your GroPod already knows what you put in," Massey said. "Different plants have different environmental preferences and the unit will find the average temperature, light cycle, humidity for your variety, among many other variables, and give you specifically the best growing conditions based of what you like to eat.”
Massey first worked on self-sufficient plant growing while on a NASA project as a student at Purdue. He has also used hydroponic technology to start farms in the western Africa country of Togo. Today, he has help start one of the largest farm systems in the region, with space at two Togo universities, a co-working space, and at the U.S. Embassy compound.
“One system for $300 can grow about 500 pounds of vegetables, annually," said Massey. "That’s enough to feed a family.”
Massey said once you see a child suffer from malnutrition, it's a difficult image to get out of your head. That's why he wanted to help.
The creator of the GroPod said he'd like to see the appliance come hand-in-hand with federal housing assistance programs. He came up with the idea after an internship on the El Paso, Tex. and Juarez, Mexico border. There he was building Section 8 housing and saw what a food desert can do to people.
The SNAP program could serve as financial assistance to have seed pods mailed to the homes of low-income families.
"The only thing they had was a McDonald's and a convenience store," Massey said. "After time, you just get obese."
Massey unveiled his first finished GroPod Thursday. He's using it as part of a demonstration to people and organizations working to improve food options in the city at the Flanner House. Some investors were also expected to be on hand.
The finished product is being given to his customer later Thursday night. He added he has many more orders in for the appliance.
Massey, who is from Evansville, is discussing selling the invention to a mass producer of kitchen and household appliances. He said he believes his creation could be on shelves everywhere in a little over a year.
“This is designed to be a common appliance that can be integrated into any home," said Massey. "It does not to be plumbed in. It does not need a special outlet. It only requires Wi-Fi and a standard 110-volt outlet.”
Filed in: News
New Unique Designer Hydroponic System To Land On Indiegogo
New Unique Designer Hydroponic System To Land On Indiegogo
May 3, 2018
(Isstories Editorial) London, May 3, 2018 (Issuewire.com) – Good news on the way for Urbanites who struggle to grow herb gardens in the concrete jungle. London-based promising startup VictoryGrow is launching a revolutionary designer low-powered hydroponic system on Crowdsourcing website Indiegogo that will allow green enthusiasts to have a lovely herb garden right on their windowsill. Aptly titled as PowerPot, the new-age system assures energy, space and water-efficient horticulture that can be easily practiced at apartments and commercial establishments.
The Indiegogo campaign is geared to raise around $19,500.
VictoryGrow PowerPots are small yet powerful hydroponic systems which will allow users to grow-from-seed various edible plants such as small tomatoes, chilies, herbs and so on. Users can also use the USB-powered system to grow fancy display plants and flowers. The PowerPot sports a clear viewport which will enable you to check up the growth and health of your plants roots any time -something which is simply impossible with soil-grown plants.
One of the best bits about our PowerPot is its all-in-one seed-to-fruit design that eliminates the hassle of transplanting your seedlings once they start to grow up. We have designed it to bring a little bling to growing whilst preventing the unwanted mess of growing plants in soil. Its convenient, easy to use, powerful and most importantly renders that desired green touch to your urban home or office when you are lamenting about the absence of a garden, stated Nick Outram, a visionary tech veteran, a seasoned hydroponic system designer and the man behind the innovative PowerPot.
Speaking further, Mr. Outram revealed the state of the art features of his new unique VictoryGrow PowerPot-
- Robust 4 mm thick high quality acrylic case manufactured with care by a leading aquarium producer
- Durable brushless and noiseless motor instead of cheap air pump brushed motors usually found in regular hydroponics systems
- In-built multicolor LED light inside the pot that can change color via remote control according to the mood of the user
- Customizable Facerings that are available in broad range of hues to choose as per specific preferences
- Low voltage powered (USB=5V) hydroponic system to ensure safe usage
VictoryGrow has also plans for a safety magnetic coupler for power in the near future.
We have got a revolutionary hydroponic system for you which is a perfect blend of form and function. At present, we are looking towards mass production and building a following around the PowerPot hence this Indiegogo campaign. Your generous support will enable us to kick-start our production at an affordable cost and start an urban growing revolution!
Backers will be rewarded with the new-age PowerPot at discounted prices along with 2 seed trays providing 12-18months of hassle free growing.
To show your support for this campaign, please visit IndieGoGo and search PowerPots
Press Kit Link: http://www.victorygrowuk.com/contact-and-presskit
Indie Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/victorygrow-powerpots-designer-growing-systems/coming_soon
Victory Grow
noutram@victorygrowuk.com
Upper Richmond Road, Putney London, United Kingdom
Purdue Startup Puts Computer-Controlled ‘Greenhouses’ In Kitchens That Grow Fresher, Healthier Produce
May 8, 2018
Purdue Startup Puts Computer-Controlled ‘Greenhouses’ In Kitchens That Grow Fresher, Healthier Produce
People can grow a variety of plants in the Heliponix GroPod. This photo shows Genova basil, red Russian kale, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and arugula being grown. (Chris Adam/Purdue Research Foundation Image)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A Purdue University-affiliated startup that seeks to redefine “farm-to-table” when it comes to garden vegetables by delivering its first orders of an appliance that fits under a kitchen counter and grows produce year-round.
Heliponix LLC, founded by two Purdue University graduates, has begun taking orders on its GroPod, a dishwasher-sized device its creators believe will disrupt the landscape of how food is produced in the face of looming worldwide food shortages and increasing concerns about chemical runoff polluting water sources, rampant food waste and water supplies diminishing on a global scale.
“It’s great for consumers and for the environment,” said Scott Massey, CEO of Heliponix.
The Heliponix GroPod allows people, even those living in inner cities with no access to land, to create perfect climate conditions so lettuce, spinach, and other crops can flourish in their kitchens without using soil. The Gropod uses aeroponics, an efficient form of hydroponics that mists the plant roots rather than submerging the roots in a nutrient reservoir. It also uses targeted light-emitting diodes that give off the optimal light spectrum for photosynthesis.
People can grow a variety of plants in the Heliponix GroPod. This photo shows Genova basil, red Russian kale, cherry tomatoes, cilantro and arugula being grown. (Chris Adam/Purdue Research Foundation Image)
“Each Heliponix GroPod is connected to the internet through IoT software that eliminates the need to know how to farm by automating ideal growing conditions through aeroponics, which uses no pesticides and 95 percent less water than conventional agriculture. You don’t need to know how to program software, design hardware, or understand how to farm, the patented design has mastered that form and function,” said Ivan Ball, also a Heliponix co-founder.
The Heliponix GroPod recently won the Best New Tech Product award from TechPoint, Indiana’s technology growth initiative.
The GroPod also uses less energy than conventional farming and can grow crops up to three times faster. It also takes up no land and reduces the need for food transportation. The GroPod is self-cleaning and can be taken apart in less than 30 seconds to wash the pieces in their dishwasher.
The founders estimate most Americans would save enough money growing their own organic produce that the GroPod could pay for itself in a couple of years.
Consumers can rip off a leaf of lettuce while letting the rest of the head to continue to grow, even when it is the dead of winter outside.
“You can’t get any fresher than this,” Massey said. “You never have to throw anything away. We hope this is going to shake things up in the ag world.”
The Heliponix founders believe the device could be as disruptive to the kitchen as refrigeration, which allowed people to safely store food inside their homes for longer periods without someone delivering ice. The GroPod will allow people to grow fresh food inside their kitchen daily without the need of going to the store. The common theme is the innovation eliminates the perishability of the goods.
Growing a variety of crops in the Heliponix GroPod is easy. Users purchase seed cups, which are put inside the GroPod, and use aeroponics to grow. (Image provided)
“The moment you separate a plant from its roots, the nutrients begin to decay exponentially,”Massey said. “By the time it’s on display at the grocery store, some of the nutrients are gone. It’s amazing what happens when you let nature run its course, and flourish in the Heliponix GroPod.”
Massey and Ball, both graduates of Purdue’s Polytechnic Institute, were introduced to controlled environment agriculture (CEA) on a NASA funded research study to develop life support systems for future space colonies.
Inspired by their NASA research, they started a company called Heliponix (formerly Hydro Grow LLC) to commercialize their space-age appliance. The company was funded through business plan competition victories at other universities until Ball and Massey’s graduation at Purdue.
Since graduating in 2017, they both worked for Heliponix full time. The company has begun selling the first Heliponix GroPod and plans to eventually begin selling refrigerator-sized GroPods.
“We chose the name "Heliponix" by combining the word ‘helix’ with ‘hydroponics.’ Our goal is to find the most efficient form of agriculture, and that means farming with the least amount of space, energy, and water without compromising our commitment to growing the highest quality food. For inspiration, we looked to nature and were influenced by the helix found in DNA segments. Through survival of the fittest, nature has already determined this to be the most efficient shape, and this has been a powerful influence on our work.”
Massey said taking part in programs at the Purdue Foundry, an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue, was essential in helping get the company off the ground. Taking part in the FireStarter program, where innovators and entrepreneurs work through ideation and market discovery to prove out their ideas and determine a path forward to commercialize that idea, helped them with a business model, product identification, and industry introductions. It also helped them win some cash awards, including $25,000 from the Purdue Ag-celerator, a plant sciences innovation fund operated by Purdue Ventures, and $20,000 for earning “Black Award” status from the Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund.
“The Foundry has been a home-run success as a startup incubator for us, making the business introductions when needed, and making funding mechanisms available,” Massey said.
About Purdue Foundry
The Purdue Foundry is an entrepreneurship and commercialization accelerator in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship whose professionals help Purdue innovators create startups. Managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Foundry was co-named a top recipient at the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Designation and Awards Program by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for its work in entrepreneurship. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org.
Purdue Research Foundation contact:
Tom Coyne, 765-588-1044, tjcoyne@prf.org
Source: Scott Massey, scott@heliponix.com
Best Discovery This Week: Tech In Canada
Best Discovery This Week: Tech In Canada
Roopinder Tara
May 04, 2018
Contributors: Michael Alba, Emily Pollock, Juliver Ramirez
Once a year, Ontario trots out its brightest companies, hippest startups, and most amazing technologies and sets a stage for it all at OCE Discovery conference in downtown Toronto. This year, over 3,600 attendees, 550 companies and exhibitors made Discovery a pretty hot ticket. ENGINEERING.com, headquartered in nearby Mississauga, dropped in to cover it.
During her keynote speech, Megan Smith–once a CTO of the United States, a VP at Google, an MIT graduate, and now spearheading shift7 (that’s the “&” symbol on the keyboard)–gave a Silicon Valley blessing to the Canadian event. Smith expressed her belief that “if we include everyone, we can fix nearly everything.”
Have Your Kale and Eat It Too
Living room furniture can sprout plants. That's a good thing for those seeking greens closer to home, says Conner Tidd, of Just Vertica
From the abundance of booths devoted to tech farming, it would seem one of the world’s problems that Smith alluded to is the lack of kale. The bitter leaf that ruins salads and smoothies was featured in three booths.
“You’ve not had kale like this kale,” said Conner Tidd, of Just Vertical, as we ripped off a leaf from a mini vertical farm designed to double as living room furniture. The company grows the kale and other edible plants through hydroponics, combining farming and living room decoration. Sure enough, the kale was not bitter. “That’s just the way it’s grown on industrial farms,” said Tidd.
Looking like an abandoned microwave overrun by nature, modgarden's Tiny Farm offers another solution for cultivating your own vegetables.
Down the aisle, another tech farmer promises “a salad a day” in what is either the smallest farm in the world or the greenest appliance. The size of a microwave, the countertop “tiny farm” by modgarden brims with leaves, all presumably edible. The farm appliance can be ordered now for $500 and will be $650 if you wait for its production in Fall 2018.
The geodesic half-dome greenhouse by husband and wife Ben Canning and Stefany Nieto of Growing North aims to bring vegetables to the native people of northern Canada, people who rarely, if ever, see anything that is green and edible, much less kale.
“We gave one girl a lettuce and you should have seen her face light up as she ate it,” said Destine Lee at the booth.
Growing North runs on the goodness of the hearts of its founders, making it a non-profit operation. Its ability to harness solar energy during the long, sunny Arctic days–up to 23 hours of sun a day–makes it green in more ways than one. The organization relays the energy into the country’s grid. The greenhouses then draw from the grid during the dark Arctic winter, enabling the produce to grow year-round.
'Food Computer' Creator Marketing To World
'Food Computer' Creator Marketing To World
Posted: Mar 26, 2018 By Dan McGowan, Senior Writer/Reporter
WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
The chief executive officer of a West Lafayette-based indoor agricultural technology company has lofty global ambitions. Heliponix co-founder Scott Massey says the company, which makes the GroPod hydroponic "food computer," has a potential market the size of every home in the world. "Ultimately, I see us becoming the world's largest farming company without owning a single acre of land." In an interview for The INnovators with Dr. K, Massey said the in-home appliance could shake up ag the way refrigerators affected the ice industry.
The company was started by Massey and Ivan Ball, who researched indoor ag together for the International Space Station while at Purdue University. The GroPod they've developed is roughly the size of a dishwasher and includes 40 spaces, or pods, for growing primarily leafy vegetables all year-round while consuming eight gallons of water per month and drawing on household electrical outlets. The business model also includes a monthly subscription service for the seed pods used in the device.
Massey told Donald "Dr. K" Kuratko, who serves as Jack M. Gill Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, the appliances solve issues such as land-space and water consumption by controlling the environment surrounding the plants. The GroPods work by cycling water and nutrients through the plants without the use of soil or pesticides.
You can connect to more about the company and its technology by clicking here.
How Would You Like To Grow A Head of Leafy Greens, Every Single Day And Not Need A Garden?
How Would You Like To Grow A Head of Leafy Greens, Every Single Day And Not Need A Garden?
The Co-Founder and CEO, Scott Massey, of Heliponix explains how the GroPod works on the Innovators with Dr. K.
Heliponix™ GroPod Product Details
The Heliponix™ GroPod is able to yield a full head of leafy greens for a small family on a daily basis. Users will enjoy a bounty of romaine lettuce, Genovese basil, spinach, cilantro, cress, rosemary, thyme, kale, or blank seed pods that allow you to enter your own growing conditions for varieties not yet available. The Heliponix™ GroPod will pay for itself by eliminating your dependence on most store-bought produce!
GroBox Sells Indoor Hydroponic Greenhouse On Corporate Website
GroBox Sells Indoor Hydroponic Greenhouse On Corporate Website
After raising more than $77,000 from crowdfunding backers on Kickstarter, consumers can continue purchasing the GroBox indoor hydroponic greenhouse on the corporate website at http://www.getgrobox.com in early March.
By the end of the Kickstarter Campaign, crowdfunders helped push presales of the all-in-one, plug-and-play GroBox seven times higher than its campaign goal.
Offering anyone the ability to grow their own plants in their own home, GroBox controls the watering schedules and air flow to grow plants faster than other methods while using two-thirds less water than traditional systems.
GroBox was designed with hydroponics technology that allows the device to be self-watering, set watering cycles and manipulate the LED grow lights for the correct amount of light. This means that users only change the water in GroBox a few times a month.
GroBox also comes with a formulated a fertilizer solution in the form of clay pellets, replacing soil, which ensures plants get the exact nutrients they need and allows for more even water distribution. The LED grow lights in GroBox also provide the lighting plants need no matter the season or outside weather and are also customizable for the growth phase of specific plants.
For more information:
www.getgrobox.com
Publication date: 3/2/2018
Microfarm Startup Wins Pitch Competition
Microfarm Startup Wins Pitch Competition
Mike Platania February 22, 2018
Two food-based startups won a total of $11,000 Tuesday night at Randolph-Macon College. (Mike Platania)
A UVA-born startup focused on water-based gardening is set to sow more seeds after taking home $10,000 in a pitch competition this week.
Charlottesville-based Babylon Micro-Farms, which makes a Keurig-like appliance for growing produce, won Dominion Energy Innovation Center’s 2018 Pitch Competition, held Tuesday at Randolph Macon College.
Startups pitched to a panel of judges that included Virginia BioTechnology Research Park president and CEO Carrie Roth and Startup Virginia executive director Bryan Bostic. The $10,000 prize was provided by the center, an Ashland-based office and coworking space for startups.
Founded in 2017, Babylon makes a “micro-farm,” which grows produce through hydroponics, a gardening method using nutrient-rich water instead of soil as a base to grow plants. Babylon has set up micro-farms in some Charlottesville eateries and UVA dining halls.
Other finalists were TMI Consulting, a Richmond-based firm focused on diversity in workplaces, and AnswersNow, an online service connecting parents of autistic children with therapists. AnswersNow was part of Richmond-based accelerator Lighthouse Labs’ 2017 class.
In addition to the startup competition, three R-MC students also pitched for a $1,000 prize, provided by the college’s The Edge Career Center.
Veg Head Foods, a vegan food truck concept by R-MC senior Sheridan Skurupey, won the student competition, beating out tutoring service Meta Language and Northern Virginia United FC, a semi-professional soccer team.
The competition was the second startup pitch contest in the region in recent months.
In November, Capital One held a competition for Lighthouse Labs’ latest class at its West Creek campus. RoundTrip, a non-emergency medical transportation company, won the $5,000 prize. A few weeks later, RoundTrip went live in the Richmond market.
Bringing Sustainable Farming Home
Bringing Sustainable Farming Home
I say farming, you say “Midwest”. It’s no secret that the Midwest, and Indiana in particular, serve as the agricultural epicenter for the United States.
Indiana is also home to Purdue University, a school who’s agricultural and technology programs serve as cornerstones for the institution. It is only fitting then that their students are behind Hydro Grow: an innovative blend of farming and technology that ushers in new-age growing.
Hydro Grow has created a commercialized hydroponic grow tank that is designed to fit seamlessly into the average home. This tank can be customized to grow the produce desired by the consumer, directly impacting the supply/demand chain of food production. Rather than settling for the produce items that are in season, or wasting money and soil on vegetables that no one will buy, Hydro Grow’s Gropod generates a tailored harvest.
In one of their most recent iterations, the Hydro Grow team has further integrated technology into the pod, equipping it with advanced analytics capabilities. Using complex algorithms, the pod will identify what plants are growing within and tailor the environment to maximize growth, making real-time adjustments based on the data stream. A mobile application allows remote monitoring, adjustments, cleaning and alerts to reach the user no matter when and no matter where.
This innovative approach to farming not only allows a family to have a tailored produce selection but contributes to the overall sustainability initiative. The ability to shrink and mass produce a practical solution to hunger has wide-ranging implications for a variety of global issues, including world hunger. It allows plants to find a nurturing environment in even the harshest of climates.
Connected farming is just one of the many ways IoT is disrupting established industries. Learn more at our IndyIoT Conference!
Clare Maher
Clare Maher is the Product Marketing Manager at ClearObject. A graduate of Saint Mary’s College (#gobelles), Clare can usually be found yelling at the screen during a Notre Dame game, quoting any film ever made or touring the Indy restaurant scene.