HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (June 16, 2023) – HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, in partnership with global venture firm and startup accelerator, gener8tor, will host their second AgTech Accelerator Showcase on Thursday, June 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Saturn V Hall at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (Davidson Center, 1 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, AL 35805).
The public is invited to attend the event as part of the Center’s Biergarten series. The Accelerator’s sponsorship of Biergarten waives the June 22 entrance fee for all attendees and includes complimentary admission to the showcase. Guests may also attend the showcase only with no admission charge.
The event will include the five startup companies that will present their work – Terra Bioforge, Khepra, OmniVis, SAVRpak and Bloom Labs. Founders will have the opportunity to pitch their companies to investors, community partners and the public.
These five companies were selected for the Spring 2023 cohort of the HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator. The 12-week accelerator began earlier in April and invests $100K in five startups at the forefront of the agriculture technology industry.
The concierge business accelerator connects startups with an engaged program team, a global community, and regional resources from both HudsonAlpha and gener8tor. Participating founders also receive comprehensive and individualized coaching along with access to gener8tor’s national network of mentors, customers, corporate partners and investors, to help them secure customers, accelerate their revenue growth and attract additional funding.
This cohort was selected from among hundreds of applications from around the world. Each went through a rigorous application and interview process before being selected because of their strong performance in four key elements: team, traction, product/service and market opportunity.
Together, gener8tor and HudsonAlpha aim to bring economic diversity and job growth to north Alabama. The HudsonAlpha Agtech Investment Accelerator is supported by the Growing Alabama Credit program through the Alabama Department of Commerce. Sponsors of the HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator include Breland Homes, Fuqua & Partners, Keel Point, Pearce Construction, Regions Bank, Synovus, as well as individual contributors.
Investors, mentors, and community members interested in connecting with the startup companies and programs are encouraged to contact Christopher Udall, HudsonAlpha Agtech Accelerator managing director.
David Mead, CEO | dmead@terrabioforge.com | http://terrabioforge.com
Terra Bioforge has pioneered a synthetic biology platform for the rapid overproduction and discovery of valuable bioactive natural products that are beneficial to humans, plants, and animals. Plant pathogens cause 300 billion dollars per year in crop losses worldwide, a problem we will solve by engineering beneficial microbial strains that replace expensive and toxic chemicals.
Julie Kring, CEO | julie@khepra.io | https://www.khepra.io
Khepra is a sustainable manufacturing platform for chemicals that is fully electrified and enables low cost production of bio-derived alternatives. Petrochemicals cause pollution with negative impacts on human and planetary health, and Khepra is aiding in solving this by decoupling petroleum from the chemicals supply chain.
Katherine Clayton | kclayton@omnivistech.com | https://www.omnivistech.com
1 in 6 Americans gets a foodborne illness every year, but OmniVis wants that to be 0. OmniVis created a handheld device to rapidly detect foodborne pathogens from the industry standard of 3 days, to under 30 minutes, saving facilities 99% of the costs associated with downtime due to foodborne outbreaks.
Bill Birgen | bill@savrpak.com | https://savrpak.com
SAVRpak, recently named a “World’s Most Innovative Company” by Fast Company, leverages thermodynamics to fight food’s #1 enemy, condensation. We keep your food fresher longer, helping fight food waste on a global scale. Technology born of aerospace and defense technology; SAVRpak is 100% chemical free and quite literally…rocket science for food.
Simardev S. Gulati | sim@bloomlabs.bio | https://www.bloomlabs.bio/
Bloom Labs is accelerating the transition toward a circular economy. Global fiber production accounts for 10% of Global Carbon Emissions and 35% of micro-plastic pollution. Bloom Labs offers a way to catalyze the value in waste by regenerating it as versatile and desirable bio-plastics and textile fibers. It sees a future where old, resource-intensive processes are replaced with cutting-edge, sustainable, scalable alternatives.
About gener8tor
gener8tor is a global venture firm and accelerator network that supports startups, founders, workers, employers, artists and musicians across race, place and gender. gener8tor partners with companies, governments, universities and nonprofits to operate programs in more than 41 communities across 22 states and two countries. Fast Company named gener8tor one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2021 and 2022.
About HudsonAlpha Agtech Accelerator
HudsonAlpha Agtech powered by gener8tor leverages HudsonAlpha’s deep experience in agriscience, specifically agriculture genomics, plant breeding and crop diversity, with gener8tor’s national network of mentors and investors, and Huntsville’s innate strengths as a technology hub. The program invests in the best and brightest startups tackling the challenges of sustainably feeding and powering a growing planet.
About HudsonAlpha
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a nonprofit institute dedicated to developing and applying scientific advances to health, agriculture, education and commercialization. The HudsonAlpha biotechnology campus consists of 152 acres nestled within Cummings Research Park, the nation’s second-largest research park. The state-of-the-art facilities co-locate nonprofit scientific researchers with entrepreneurs and educators. HudsonAlpha is a national and international leader in genetics and genomics research and biotech education and fosters more than 45 diverse biotech companies on campus.
