California-based SVG Partners announced the expansion of its THRIVE AgTech accelerator program to the U.S. Midwest with the intent of focusing on driving advancements in agriculture and animal health.
The venture and innovation firm is collaborating with the National Pork Board, AgriNovus Indiana, Elanco Animal Health, Purdue Foundry, and its long-term partner Land O’Lakes to build a bridge between THRIVE Silicon Valley and the Midwest region.
Through the expansion, THRIVE is targeting the building of a pipeline of livestock management and animal health startups, expanding its support of emerging plant science and biotech startups, and validating and scaling new technologies that apply to the livestock industry.
“Monitoring animal health and preventing animal disease outbreaks is vital to our food supply chain,” said SVG Partners Founder and CEO John Hartnett. “We look forward to leveraging our new partnerships with the National Pork Board and AgriNovus Indiana, as well as our existing partner Land O’Lakes to provide strategic and technical expertise and key resources to startup companies developing technologies for livestock producers.”
Since its launch four years ago in Salinas, California, THRIVE has invested in 20 companies, which have grown to have a combined value of $500 million, and have gone on to raise $100 million through Seed and Series A rounds.
These companies include Trace Genomics and MagGrow, which only weeks ago raised $13 million, and $3.4 million, respectively.
Having more than 1,500 startups in its accelerator program, THRIVE has graduated four classes to date. And on November 27, the program announced that going into its fifth year, it received nearly 300 applications from 55 countries for its next cohort. The field of applicants represent technologies being developed by companies ranging from next-gen farms, big data analytics, food tech, supply chains, robotics and automation, biotechnology, and e-commerce.
In the weeks to come, all applications will be reviewed by THRIVE’s SVG team and its corporate partners, who will announce in February the next class of 10 to participate in its Spring 2019 Seed Camp.
“Working with new local partners in Indiana, we will be able to build on the success of our West Coast-based accelerator in order to deliver targeted technology to livestock farmers in the region and beyond,” said Hartnett.
Concurrently, THRIVE also announced the addition of the National Pork Board, which is funded by more than 60,000 U.S. pork producers to support pork as a sustainable and responsible protein, to its AgTech Venture and Innovation Platform.
“This partnership aligns well with our producers’ ongoing efforts to build upon our foundation of providing a healthy, safe, environmentally sustainable product for the food supply chain,” said Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board. “Over the past several decades, pork producers have decreased the carbon footprint and both land and water usage. Technology is critical to driving sustainable, efficient production through a commitment to environmental sustainability and animal welfare.”
Greenfield, Indiana-based animal health company Elanco, which works to provide veterinarians, food producers, and pet owners what is needed for healthy animals, is also joining the program.
“We believe programs such as THRIVE can provide a valuable and complementary path for the development of next-generation technologies in animal health,” Elanco Executive Vice President Aaron Schacht said in a statement.
Meanwhile, existing THRIVE partners such as Corteva Agriscience and Trimble have access to a well of resources in the Midwest, and Purdue Foundry will be key in connecting the THRIVE network with the talent pool at the university level.
“The technologies coming out of the outstanding research in agriculture, veterinary medicine and across campus support a strong pipeline of technology commercialization and start-up creation,” said Greg Deason, senior vice president of entrepreneurship and place making for the Purdue Research Foundation. “We are excited about what THRIVE will bring to the Midwest in advancing the entire region’s growth in the agrosciences and agbiosciences.”
-Lynda Kiernan