Media Mentions

EnterpriseWorks startup, Aptimmune Biologics, was recently recognized as one of seven Ag Tech start-ups to watch in 2018 by Agriculture.com. Aptimmune focuses on developing revolutionary swine vaccines and the prevention of the diseases, porcine reprodutive, respiratory syndrome virus ({PRRSV), and influenza. In November, Aptimmune launched the industry’s first inactivated mucosal influenza A virus vaccine in swine. Recently, the company raised $6 Million Series B Funding from various investors and has moved its headquarters to St. Louis. To see a complete list of Ag Tech startups to watch click here. Visit Aptimmune’s website here.

EnterpriseWorks startup, IntelinAir was recently named one of seven Ag Tech start-ups to watch in 2018 by Agriculture.com. IntelinAir was founded in 2015 to help farmers make more cost-effecient and smart decisions based on aerial imagery, and is based both in Champaign, Illinois at the Research Park and in San Jose, California. The company’s AgMRI platform, which was just unveiled in the last year, is described on their website as “the leading aerial analytics solution for agriculture.” Since releasing this platform, the company has quickly soared to the top of aerial monitoring and analytics companies, having monitored nearly 2 million acres in 2017. Visit IntelinAir’s website to learn more about them here.

AgFunder News highlights 20 remote sensing startups, sorted by their main sources of data such as satellites, drones, airplanes, and ground-based sensors. EnterpriseWorks graduate Agrible is named one of the most prominent players that rely on a combination of drone/airplane-based imagery. Agrible focuses on providing innovative science that farmers and ag companies can use easily every day to improve their production with cloud-based delivery systems, their core offering being the Morning Farm Report. EnterpriseWorks startup IntelinAir is recognized as one of the most prominent players that rely on either drone or airplane-based data. IntelinAir’s provides farmers in-season insights through aerial imagery analytics powered by traditional computer vision, modern machine learning methodologies and agronomic science.

Agrible and Granular were recently recognized on THRIVE 50, an annual list created by SVG Partners that ranks the best AgTech companies in the United States. Agrible is a homegrown organization that first started at the EnterpriseWorks incubator. They focus on providing farmers with the tools and science to improve production with cloud-based delivery systems. The company has since moved to a different building, but are still located at Research Park. Agrible received praise in the “Big Data and Analytics” category of the THRIVE 50 list. Granular is a San Francisco based company that opened a second office at Research Park. The organization specializes in agriculture software and analytics to better manage business decisions on large farms. Granular was commended in the “Cloud Services/SAAS” catagory. Both companies will be recognized on February 1st at the THRIVE Innovation Forum. Read the full article here.

Amber Agriculture, a University of Illinois student startup with ties to EnterpriseWorks, has been named the top startup of the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES). Amber Agriculture’s agtech product helps farmers manage their stored product, and is part of the connected farm movement. “Plenty of startups promise solutions to problems that are either overblown or don’t really exist, but we can’t say the same about Amber Agriculture. With Amber’s array of sensors, farmers can more easily check the quality of their stored grain and get their wares to the companies that make our food at the right time. Beyond ensuring these farmers get the biggest return on their crop yields, the ability to monitor for the conditions that lead to spoilage could eventually help whole countries deal with food supply issues. Long story short: Amber’s is a savvy approach to a pressing problem most people don’t even know about,” wrote Endgadget editor Chris Velazco. Engadget wrote a longer piece on Amber Agriculture: “What’s more, Amber’s approach falls in line with other big trends at the show. You’ve heard of the smart home. Now the Amber team is trying to help build the smart farm. Amber Agriculture won the 2016 Cozad New Venture Competition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and subsequently participated in the iVenture Accelerator student program over the summer, housed at Research Park. After a short stint at EnteprieseWorks, the team spent the past semester at Hax Accelerator in China. They have received grant money from EnterpriseWorks and plan to resume tenancy there in 2017. Interested in learning more about Amber Agriculture? Visit the link to hear more from co-founder, Lucas Frye.

ChicagoInno put together a list of the Top 17 Chicago Startups to watch in 2017 based on the companies’ growth in 2016 and potential for 2017. Ocient, an EnterpriseWorks affiliate member, was featured as number 3 on the list. Ocient develops supercomputer scale data platforms for high velocity analytics and machine learning on the world’s largest data sets. Read the ChicagoInno article here.