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
Meet the 2022 IN2 Cohort
Meet the 2021 IN2 Cohort
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Meet the 2020 IN2 Cohort
Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort
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
Read more about our IN2 companies:
- (St. Louis INNO) 3 local startups get funding from Missouri Technology Corp.
- (AgFunderNews) Edison Agrosciences lands fresh funds to make natural rubber from sunflower crops
- (St. Louis Business Journal) Meet St. Louis Inno's 2024 Fire Awards finalists
- (St. Louis Public Radio) ‘Precision Ag’ promised a farming revolution. It’s coming, just slowly
- (St. Louis Business Journal)St. Louis sensing tech startup to open new office as it shifts to hub model
- (EIN PRESSWIRE) SOLASTA BIO & IMPETUS AG ANNOUNCED AS WINNERS OF “RADICLE NPP CHALLENGE BY UPL”
- (TIME) COVERCRESS INC. NAMED AMONG AMERICA’S TOP GREENTECH COMPANIES BY TIME MAGAZINE
- (AgFunderNews) Meet the Founders: AgroSpheres co-founders share lessons in ag biotech and the value of a long-term perspective
- (Hawaiian Airlines) The Power Pod
- (KSAL) Potential of CoverCress in State’s Cropping Systems
- (BloombergNEF) CoverCress and Kelvin selected as 2024 BloombergNEF Pioneer winners
- (AgFunderNews) Terviva’s strategic pivot: ‘The development cycles of our tech are longer than the economic cycles in which we operate’
- CoverCress Inc. Named a BNEF Pioneers 2024 Winner for Advancements in
Net-Zero Fuels - AMERICA'S TOP GREENTECH COMPANIES 2024
- Terviva Expands Relationship with ALOHA with New Pa'akai Bar, Made with Sustainable Ponova® Oil
- WINNERS ANNOUNCED: UPL CORP LEADS US$1.75M INVESTMENT IN BIOLOGICAL AG-TECH INNOVATORS
- Dr. Tom Adams Joins Plastomics Board of Directors
- IN² Spotlight: How Phages Can Stop Drug-Resistant Bacteria
- (St. Louis Business Journal) Agtech startup, spun out of Danforth Center, acquired by Boston-area firm
- Impossible Sensing Amplifies St. Louis Agtech Hub in Bold Climate-centric Shift
- (St. Louis Business Journal) Running Tide, a Maine startup seeking to remove carbon through the ocean, opens R&D hub in St. Louis
- (St. Louis Business Journal) 3 St. Louis startups win funding from Danforth Center/Wells Fargo incubator program
- 7 Companies Selected to participate on 2023 IN2 Cohort
- Pluton Biosciences takes its carbon-fixing microbes to market with a fresh $16.6M
- St. Louis agtech startup Pluton Biosciences raises $16.5M to add staff, advance product development efforts
- Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator Announces 2023 Channel Partner Strategic Awards to Catalyze Innovation and Inclusion
- VIDEO: (HEC Media) New Farm-to-Fuel Supply Chain Emerges in St. Louis From Success of CoverCress
- VIDEO: (HEC Media) Advancing AgTech in St. Louis Through Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator & Danforth Plant Science
- (St. Louis Business Journal) Startups to Watch 2023: Peptyde Bio creates template for spinning more startups out of Danforth Center
- (St. Louis Post Dispatch) Nicklaus: CoverCress deal is a big win for St. Louis' ag-startup effort
- Plastomics Inc. Names New CEO as Novel Trait Delivery Platform
- Progresses
- VIDEO: (HEC Media) St. Louis Agtech Startup Sees Sunflowers as Reliable Source of Natural Rubber in America’s Future
- Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator Selects Four Agtech Companies Targeting Global Food Resiliency
- Peptyde Bio Closes Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Round
- (St. Louis Inno) 2022 Fire Awards: Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator looks to elevate agtech firms
- Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator Selects Four Agtech Companies Targeting Global Food Resiliency
- Peptyde Bio Closes Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Round
- (St. Louis Inno) 2022 Fire Awards: Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator looks to elevate agtech firms
- (St. Louis Inno) 3 St. Louis startups win spots in Danforth Center/Wells Fargo agtech incubator program
- IN2 AgTech Startups Making an Impact
- Meet The 2021 Innovation Incubator Cohort: New West Genetics
- Meet the 2021 Innovation Incubator Cohort: Atlas Sensor Technologies
- Meet the 2021 Innovation Incubator Cohort: CarbonBook
- Meet the 2020 IN2 Sustainable Ag Companies: Pluton Biosciences
- Meet the 2020 IN2 Sustainable Ag Innovation Companies: AgroSpheres
- Meet the 2020 IN2 Sustainable Ag Innovation Companies: TerViva
- Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort: RNAissance Ag
- Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort: Intrinsyx Bio
- Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort: SolGro
- Meet the 2019 IN22 Cohort: Aker
- Meet the 2019 IN2 Cohort: RNAissance Ag
Meet the Team
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Elliot Kellner
Director of Commercial Innovation, Innovation Team
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