AgTech Meetup with AgFunder

Agriculture is undergoing a digital revolution. The demand for information along the food supply chain is driving the evolution of digital-based solutions for growing food and increased agtech adoption. From precision farming to biotechnology, there is a growing crop of startups using data and technology to make food production more sustainable, efficient and profitable.

Join us to hear how food innovators are advancing the way we farm at our January Food+Tech Meetup in partnership with AgFunder. Presenters will do a deep dive into their business strategies, technologies, challenges and lessons learned.

Come network with the community and get a taste from emerging F&B startups: Dream Greens by Aerofarms x Saxon + Parole x Impossible Foods, Baking Supply Co, Bowery Farming, Gotham Greens x Kite Hill, Nomad Trading Co, Up Mountain Switchel, Lily Puffs and Ocean Hugger Foods.

SCHEDULE:
6:30 – 7:15pm: Networking
7:30 – 9:00pm: Presentations + Q&A
9:00 – 9:30pm: Networking

PRESENTERS:
Steve Sibulkin, Co-Founder & CEO, Agronomic Technology Corp (Adapt-N)
Steve Sibulkin is the co-founder and CEO of Agronomic Technology Corp, a data and software company that provides proprietary crop, soil, water and fertilizer modeling to help farmers achieve profitable sustainability. The company’s Adapt-N solution is used by leading food companies, agricultural retailers, agronomists and farm technology companies. In November 2017, Agronomic Technology Corp was acquired by Yara International. Steve has founded and lead several successful technology-driven ventures, including at Giving Zone, Mainspring, Ogilvy & Mather, and Sapient.  He has a B.A. from UCLA and an MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern.

Megan Nunes, Founder & CEO, Vinsight
Vinsight founder + CEO Megan Nunes, grew up in the farming business. After almost a decade-long career in the satellite industry, she turned her tech knowledge back home. Her San Francisco-based startup now offers forecasting software and data analytics to famers who are growing almost anything that’s not corn, wheat, or soy. Vinsight is an application that aggregates geospatial data, weather data and geographical information data to provide the grape and almond industries with analytics for what is happening in field. Their goal is to improve yield and revenue for growers while providing ultimate insight and transparency to all areas of the value chain.

Dr Deane Falcone, CTO & Senior VP of Plant Science, Freshbox Farms
We combine a farmer’s common sense with a strategic business vision, a commitment to innovation, and the latest in plant science technologies to grow healthier foods and harvest higher returns. As urban density increases around the world, locally sourced food is taking on greater importance. Crop One drastically reduces transportation carbon use due to our farms’ proximity to the point of consumption and nearly eliminates usage of other resources, particularly water. Our processes have a dramatically lower ecological footprint and our proprietary information management systems allow us to create superior plant quality with no pesticide/adverse chemical intervention. Instead, we use our digital and mechanical controls to influence plant behavior – growing fresher, tastier greens. As the most capital efficient vertical farmer in the world, we are also able to lead the vertical farming industry to serve volume market segments such as food service.

Reese Mozer, Co-Founder & CEO, American Robotics
Reese Mozer and his colleagues have been studying drones and their application in agriculture for almost a decade. The summary: The hype is fading, and drones don’t work yet for farmers. Limits on battery life and rural-area data transfer make current options time consuming, complicated, and entirely impractical. American Robotics has resolved these issues with ScoutTM: a fully-automated, self-charging drone system, capable of functioning independently for entire seasons. Once our DS1 Drone Stations are installed, a fleet of connected, weatherproof ScoutsTM function autonomously in the field, seamlessly delivering health reports regularly and reliably. By removing the need for human pilots and utilizing the computing power of these drone stations, we’ve created a solution that is 6-45x more cost effective than alternatives.

Federico A. Tripodi, CEO, Calyxt
Calyxt is combining its leading gene-editing technology and technical expertise with its innovative commercial strategy to deliver healthier specialty food ingredients and agriculturally advantageous traits. Our technology enables us to precisely and specifically edit a plant genome to elicit the desired traits and characteristics, resulting in a final product that has no foreign DNA. We believe the precision, specificity, cost effectiveness and speed of our gene-editing technologies will enable us to provide meaningful disruption to the food and agriculture industries. Federico A. Tripodi holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Washington University’s Olin Business School, as well as an agronomic engineering degree from Buenos Aires University. He has gathered extensive experience in agricultural R&D and product development during his nearly two-decade career in the ag biotech and seed industry.

PARTNER:

AgFunder is the online investment platform for AgriFood technologies. We help accredited, institutional, and corporate investors discover and invest in startups transforming the food & agriculture industry using proprietary research, big data, and machine learning. Our industry-leading market intelligence is supported by a database of over 11,000 companies and analysis from over 150+ machine learning algorithms to help to identify and assess the best investment opportunities from around the world for our managed funds and co-investment opportunities, as well as to provide support to our portfolio companies.

HOST:

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. We are an independent, founder-controlled company of 132 people working together in an old pencil factory in New York City. Over 10 million people, from every continent on earth, have backed a Kickstarter project from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. To date, tens of thousands of creative projects — big and small — have come to life with the support of the Kickstarter community.

SPONSORS:

FoodBytes! by Rabobank is a next-generation pitch competition that brings together the game-changing startups, investors and industry leaders at the forefront of food and agriculture innovation. As a member of the FTC community, snag your tickets to FoodBytes! San Francisco on March 1 for 15% off with the code FBFAMILY here.

Like our namesake borough, the Brooklyn Brewery is made up of a rich collection of characters from all over the world. In our Williamsburg home, these characters are dedicated to brewing and selling great beer and enriching the communities we serve. Together, these Brooklyners have assembled the skills needed to transform a home brewing hobby into an independent brewery with a brand that has become an international beacon for good beer.