Illinois Agtech Accelerator Announces Spring 2021 Companies
Cohort Includes EnterpriseWorks’ own TellTail
CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS – Illinois AgTech Accelerator, a gener8tor program based at the University of Illinois Research Park, has announced the participants in its gBETA AgTech Spring 2021 cohort. The five participating startups range from food ingredients to livestock management.
gBETA AgTech is a free, seven-week accelerator for early stage companies from around the country. Each of five participating startups receive a $25,000 investment via uncapped convertible note or on their existing financing terms. Each gBETA program is capped at five companies to ensure meaningful engagement with sponsors and other resources. Participants receive intensive and individualized coaching and access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors. The program is designed to help startups gain early customer traction on their product or idea, and establish metrics that can make them competitive applicants for full-time, equity-based accelerators or seed investment.
“This cohort was selected from among a highly competitive pool of applicants and we are excited to see the breadth of innovation this group of companies will bring to the ag and food industries.” said Jack Marck, Managing Director of Illinois AgTech Accelerator.
The program kicks off on Wednesday, January 20 with five startups who will be working over the next seven weeks with the gBETA team to meet mentors, gain customer traction and pitch to investors.
gBETA AgTech is held once a year with five companies accepted per cohort to ensure a high level of individualized attention. Startups interested in applying should contact Illinois AgTech Accelerator Managing Director Jack Marck ([email protected]). For more information, visit gbetaagtech.com.
gBETA AgTech Spring 2021 Cohort
Otrafy applies key disruptive technologies like Natural Language Processing and OCR to food safety processes and information to help quality assurance professionals manage the collection, storage, reviewing and renewal of supplier quality data.
Nhat Nguyen: Co-Founder & CEO
AgVoice, a mobile voice-to-data system, allows agri-food workers to capture and analyze field-level data more efficiently and accurately, hands-free.
Bruce Rasa: Founder & CEO
ClearLeaf designs and commercializes innovative pre- and post-harvest fungicides and bactericides to create sustainable crop protection strategies mitigating the negative impacts of harmful pests while maintaining balance on the farm, protecting farmers and consumers.
Néstor Zúñiga: Founder & CEO
TellTail, Inc develops digital tools to improve the management of pig production systems by bringing together people, pigs and facilities under a single platform. Based at EnterpriseWorks and founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Angela Green-Miller: Co-founder & CEO
Spira uses CRISPR-edited carbon-negative algae to create replacements for artificial colors and animal proteins in the supply chain for food, cosmetic and textile companies.
Elliot Roth: Founder & CEO
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About gener8tor
gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startup founders, musicians, artists, investors, universities, and corporations. The gener8tor platform includes pre-accelerators, accelerators, corporate programming, conferences and fellowships.
About gBETA
gBETA is a program of nationally ranked startup accelerator gener8tor. gBETA is a free accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots. Each program is capped at five teams, and requires no fees and no equity. For more gBETA statistics, visit www.gbetastartups.com/statistics.