West Coast Ag Tech Accelerator Coming to Midwest
The expansion was announced at the Agbioscience Innovation Summit in Indianapolis. (photo courtesy of Centric)
A California-based venture and innovation firm has announced plans to bring its THRIVE AgTech program to the Midwest. SVG Partners says the accelerator will focus specifically on animal health and support agriculture advancements while working with Indiana-based corporate partners such as AgriNovus Indiana, Elanco Animal Health Inc. (NYSE: ELAN) in Greenfield and Purdue University.
Purdue says the firm aims to develop a targeted pipeline of livestock management and animal health startups through THRIVE with the goal of validating and scaling new technologies for the sector. THRIVE also aims to support emerging plant science and biotechnology startups.
"Monitoring animal health and preventing animal disease outbreaks is vital to our food supply chain," said John Hartnett, founder and chief executive officer of SVG Partners. "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. 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."
The firm launched THRIVE in 2014 and begun plans to bring the accelerator to the Midwest after attending the Forbes AgTech Summit in Indianapolis in September.
Purdue says the program’s expansion will bring together existing and new partnerships with corporate entities, academia, investors and startups to foster new ag tech opportunities for the region. Purdue Foundry, the university’s startup accelerator, will help with the expansion by connecting university talent with THRIVE’s network and resources.
The expansion of the THRIVE program was announced Thursday at the Agbioscience Innovation Summit in downtown Indianapolis.