Accelerating AgTech Innovation into the Marketplace

Through a collaboration with the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Danforth Center helps early-stage companies de-risk their technologies and speed their path to market.

Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²)

Developing, testing, and validating innovative technologies can be cost-prohibitive for startups. Launched in 2014, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator strategically targets this space, and serves as a resource to help early-stage companies surmount technological and commercial “valleys of death”. In 2019, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator began partnering with the Danforth Center to impact the agtech industry.

IN² research collaborations leverage the capabilities, facilities, equipment, and expertise of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to help early-stage companies develop and de-risk technologies, and speed their path to market. To date, 26 agtech companies have collaborated with Danforth Center scientists.

By focusing on technology with a large potential for environmental impact, but which have been ignored by the investment community due to technological barriers, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator is making agriculture more sustainable in the face of climate change and global food security challenges.

IN² AgTech Startups by the Numbers

26

agtech portfolio companies with a total of 584 employees (almost 2x higher!)

48%

employment growth for agtech portfolio companies. (10% lower)

$183M

raised by agtech companies since participating in IN2 (an increase of $3.9M)

IN² Spotlight

Meet the 2023 IN² Cohort

Habiterre

HabiTerre, based in St. Louis, MO, uses remote sensing, process models, and artificial intelligence to create a holistic picture of farm production systems past, present, and future cropland performance, including net greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration, crop rotation, management history, yield, water use, and nutrient dynamics. Habiterre will collaborate with Danforth’s Dr. Chris Topp.

Impetus Ag

Impossible Sensing

Impossible Sensing, based in St. Louis, MO, boosts soil management, merging in-situ sensors with regular farming operations. The solutions aim to capture real-time data on nutrients, soil health, and carbon levels, empowering growers to maximize land potential, participate in carbon markets, and improve profitability through sustainable practices. Impossible Sensing will collaborate with Danforth’s Dr. Allison Miller.

InnerPlant

InnerPlant, based in Davis, CA, develops seed technology to tap into plants’ natural response pathways and code crops to communicate early and specific stresses via easy-to-collect optical signals. The technology helps farmers understand plants' needs and prescribe the right amount of fertilizer and crop protection products at the optimal time. InnerPlant will collaborate with Danforth’s Dr. Katie Murphy.

Mirai Solar

Mirai Solar, based in Mountain View, CA, uses photovoltaic shade screen technology, the Mirai Screen, to provide greenhouses and smart buildings the means to reduce their operational costs and achieve net-zero energy targets. The Mirai Screen transforms the need for shade into a source for renewable energy by acting as a simple drop-in replacement for conventional passive shade screens. Mirai Solar will collaborate with Danforth’s Dr. Ru Zhang.

Running Tide

Running Tide, based in Portland, ME, is on a mission to restore ocean health, rebalance the carbon cycle, and revitalize coastal communities. The company designs and develops integrated software and hardware systems, including monitoring and measurement capabilities, to deploy nature-based interventions that remove carbon, combat ocean acidification, and increase the scientific understanding of ocean ecosystems. Running Tide will collaborate with Danforth’s Drs. Noah Fahlgren and Malia Gehan.

Sentinel Fertigation

Sentinel Fertigation, based in Lincoln, NE, leverages remote sensing and geospatial data to empower precision nitrogen management, particularly for farmers who fertigate. Sentinel’s N-Time software program helps farmers improve nitrogen use efficiency by 23% and save 42 pounds of nitrogen per acre on average. Sentinel Fertigation will collaborate with Dr. Elliott Kellner to connect with a broad set of research teams across the cohort’s ecosystem.

Meet the 2022 IN² Cohort

Cytophage Technologies

Cytophage Technologies, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, aims to overcome the problem with evolving bacteria that becomes increasingly resistant to antibiotics by using synthetic biology to generate bacteriophage. Bacteriophages are evolved viruses that exclusively infect and kill bacteria and leave behind no deleterious effects on humans, plants, or animals. Cytophage Technologies will collaborate with Danforth Center Principal Investigators Drs. Rebecca Bart and Allison Miller.

Edison Agrosciences

Edison Agrosciences, based in St. Louis, MO, tackles the problem of the endangered natural rubber supply by increasing the amount of rubber already produced by the sunflower plant. The goal is to create a domestic supply, prevent further tropical deforestation, and improve farmer economics for a crop suitable for marginal lands. Edison Agrosciences will collaborate with Danforth Principal Investigator Dr. Todd Mockler.

Peptyde Bio

Peptyde Bio, based in St. Louis, MO, strives to provide a safe alternative to combat fungal diseases even as resistance to current solutions accelerates. Peptyde discovers, designs, and develops novel biofungicides based on plant-derived antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), speeding transition of crop protection from synthetic chemicals toward natural alternatives. Peptyde Bio will collaborate with Danforth Principal Investigators Drs. Mao Li and Noah Fahlgren.

Robigo

Robigo, based in Cambridge, MA, is shaping microbial communities to create a more sustainable food system. Unlike existing pesticides that indiscriminately kill microbes and wreak havoc on the environment, Robigo's technology specifically targets pathogenic bacteria, creating more effective and environmentally friendly biopesticides that will clear the way for healthier soils and more productive crops. Robigo will collaborate with Danforth Center Principal Investigators Drs. Rebecca Bart and Allison Miller.

Meet the 2021 IN² Cohort

Atlas Sensor Technologies

IoT solutions for the water industry. Monitoring water hardness in real-time with its ion exchange fiber-based technology, to reduce cost and waste while improving how water softeners operate. Danforth Center Principal Investigator Ivan Baxter, PhD, will collaborate with Atlas Sensors to develop a nitrate sensor with possible uses in indoor and outdoor agriculture. This will help track nitrate through the system, enabling efforts to limit its use and waste. Atlas will produce sensor materials and NREL Principal Investigator Lance Wheeler will perform materials characterization on sample nitrate sensors produced by Atlas.

GrowFlux

CarbonBook

Automated AI yield predictions. Specializing in the application of artificial intelligence for indoor agriculture to provide greenhouse growers and supply chain participants with information to optimize yield and reduce their carbon footprint. NREL Principal Investigators Anya Petersen and Venkatesh Chinde will provide research support on inputs for the development of carbon footprint calculators.

New West Genetics

Genomics-assisted breeding for the hemp industry. Creating proprietary, stable, high-yielding breed varieties for sustainable hemp production, delivering a highly productive crop that can support food, feed, biomass and specialty products for an expanding population. Danforth Center Principal Investigator Chris Topp, PhD, will evaluate root architecture and rooting ability of a number of New West Genetics proprietary hemp varieties. Growth will be assessed under greenhouse-controlled environments and cultivation systems. This data will guide New West Genetics as they continue to develop high performing hemp varieties for indoor and outdoor growth.

Meet the 2020 IN² Cohort

AgroSpheres

AgroSpheres is developing biobased encapsulation and delivery technology to enhance the effectiveness of crop protection products against economically important fungal disease pests. This technology could reduce the amount of expensive biological compounds needed for crop protection. For AgroSphere’s IN2 project, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (Danforth Center) is testing delivery and mode of action of two types of active biological pesticides encapsulated in minicells: 1) double-stranded RNA and 2) peptides developed by the Danforth Center. Principal Investigators: Dilip Shah, PhD and Kirk Czymmek, PhD.

Learn more in the below video.

EarthSense

EarthSense is developing robots for autonomous and automated field data collection to improve accuracy and reduce labor and energy consumption in agriculture. The EarthSense IN2 field trial project with the Danforth Center compared data being collected manually against its prototype robot in-field trials of corn varieties and provided further validation of analytical algorithms needed to extract meaningful biological patterns. Data collection focused on below canopy traits that cannot currently be observed in images taken above the canopy. The trait analysis algorithms will be used to provide R&D tools for more rapid crop breeding and field agronomy. Principal Investigator: Todd Mockler, PhD.

mobius

mobius is developing renewable biodegradable polymers from food, forestry, and agricultural waste streams. The Danforth Center is testing the functions of these polymers to optimize the release of nitrogen containing compounds into the root-growing region of young plants. This will improve below-ground plant health and root growth in controlled environments. Principal Investigator: Christopher Topp, PhD.

Learn more in the below video!

Plastomics

Plastomics is developing a novel delivery technology to introduce beneficial traits into the chloroplast of plant cells, creating crops that can better withstand the pressure of insects, diseases, and weeds while delivering higher yields and environmental benefits. The IN2 program will enable Plastomics to achieve more rapid and focused product development by partnering with Danforth investigators to evaluate the fundamental molecular mechanisms of novel chloroplast-expressed RNAi traits.

Pluton Biosciences

Pluton Biosciences is developing safe and effective pesticides from microbial sources for agriculture and human health. Pluton’s IN2 project with the Danforth Center is providing validation for its platform technology that mines populations of microbes to identify specific microbes that harbor compounds with beneficial pesticidal activities. The project is identifying the active pesticide molecule(s) capable of killing mosquitos that harbors Zika virus by sequentially fractionating and testing biological samples. This test case will accelerate the development of crop protection applications from other microbes. Candidate compounds in the anti-mosquito application may include proteins or other metabolites. Principal Investigator: Toni Kutchan, PhD and Brad Evans, PhD.

Learn more in the below video.

Terviva

Terviva is commercializing the oil seed, climate resilient tree legume, pongamia. Together TerViva and the Danforth Center is investigating root-to-shoot compatibility among TerViva’s elite scion varieties and target root stock candidates. These rootstocks and the knowledge of grafting compatibility will enable TerViva to produce more resilient and cost-effective trees through the production processes of grafting, rooted cuttings, and micropropagation, and to accelerate scaleup of its production processes. Principal Investigator: Allison Miller, PhD.

Learn more in the below video.

Meet the 2019 IN² Cohort

Aker Technologies

Aker Technologies’ TrueSense™ technology automates the crop-scouting process that captures and analyzes the presence and intensity of pests and pathogens below the crop canopy. As part of its 2020 field trials, the Danforth Center helped Aker with early validation of early detection of two bacterial pathogens based on digital imagery and analytical algorithms. Aker will continue building this state-of-the-art imaging methods for disease detection, identifying additional disease signatures that can be incorporated into future generations of TrueSense™ for enhanced field scouting. Principal investigators: Malia Gehan, PhD and Rebecca Bart, PhD.

CoverCress

CoverCress has developed a crop from pennycress that covers soil between growing cycles, protecting it from harsh conditions while producing a low-carbon intensity crop for renewable fuel and cooking oil. To enable the development of different varieties of pennycress, through IN², the Danforth Center helped CoverCress shorten the breeding cycle of the crop by transient expression of floral pathway genes to accelerate flowering and has validated specific antifungal peptides whose genes will be incorporated into future generations of CoverCress varieties to provide effective fungal pathogen protection. Principal investigators: Dmitri Nusinow, PhD and Dilip Shah PhD.

Intrinsyx Bio

Intrinsyx Bio plant probiotics increase crop yield, reduce excess fertilizer, and improve soil and water conditions. To work, the probiotics must successfully “colonize” a crop. Intrinsyx’s IN² project focused on better understanding how to entice plants to accept the probiotics and what varieties of crop respond positively to the probiotic microbes. Principal Investigators: Ivan Baxter, PhD and Rebecca Bart, PhD.

RNAissance Ag

RNAissance Ag produces safe, effective, and environmentally sustainable insecticide for precision pest management. Its technology disrupts the internal microbiome (gut) of targeted insect pests. Through its IN² project, the Danforth Center has helped RNAissance Ag accelerate and validate its current methods for identifying and testing anti-insect RNAi products, focusing on fall armyworm and diamondback moth for its initial product development. Principal Investigators: Noah Fahlgren, PhD.

Learn more in the video below:

SolGro

SolGro has created a nanoparticle film for greenhouse windows that converts the broad whole spectrum wavelength of sunlight into more efficient wavelengths that improve the process of photosynthesis. Its technology aims to help farmers increase crop productivity and improve the overall quality of their produce. Through IN², the Danforth Center has helped SolGro obtain data on how much its materials can improve plant growth and under what precise conditions. Principal Investigators: Ru Zhang, PhD and Jim Umen, PhD.

Plastomics’ IN² project with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center gave us access to investigators with world-class expertise in RNAi biology and the ability to utilize state-of-the art microscopy and plant growth facilities. Together, Plastomics and IN² investigators helped identify and validate the mechanisms of chloroplast RNAi that will result in increased efficacy of our traits.

Jeffrey Staub, Founder and CTO, Plastomics

Meet the Team

Elliot Kellner

Director of Commercial Innovation, Innovation Team

Minna Onken

IN² Project Coordinator

Contact Us

Email

ekellner@danforthcenter.org

Phone

314-587-1450

Accelerating AgTech Innovation into the Marketplace

Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2)

IN2 AgTech Startups by the Numbers

26

48%

$183M

IN2 Spotlight

Meet the 2023 IN2 Cohort

Meet the 2022 IN2 Cohort

Meet the 2021 IN2 Cohort

Meet the 2020 IN2 Cohort

Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort

Read more about our IN2 companies:

Meet the Team

Elliot Kellner

Director of Commercial Innovation, Innovation Team

Minna Onken

IN2 Project Coordinator

Contact Us

Email

Phone

Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²)

IN² AgTech Startups by the Numbers

IN² Spotlight

Meet the 2023 IN² Cohort

Meet the 2022 IN² Cohort

Meet the 2021 IN² Cohort

Meet the 2020 IN² Cohort

Meet the 2019 IN² Cohort

Read more about our IN² companies:

IN² Project Coordinator