New ag innovation program seeks to further St. Louis’ prowess in the sector

Leaders in St. Louis’ agtech innovation scene are betting that the launch of a startup incubator program designed to accelerate the vetting, development, and growth of early stage agricultural ventures will further the region’s national and global prowess in the sector.

The Yield Lab Institute, a St. Louis-based nonprofit think tank focused on helping entrepreneurs in the ag space, announced H.A.R.V.E.S.T. AgTech on Wednesday as a “next generation” of IN2, a successful national innovation incubator funded by Wells Fargo and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

Yield Lab Institute executive director Stephanie Regagnon explains that H.A.R.V.E.S.T. isn’t trying to reinvent a program that’s been successful, but instead it rehomes its administration to St. Louis with different funding sources and partners. Three Yield Lab Institute employees, along with Regagnon, will work on the initiative.

“For an agriculture organization to now be the administrative arm of this program is a huge deal,” she says. “There was a secret sauce to [IN2].”

Since 2014, that program has supported some 77 startups working on innovation across sectors, such as the built environment, electricity, materials and industrial manufacturing, agriculture and food, with many still operating and a handful having achieved successful exits.

Regagnon says St. Louis is a natural place to lead this new program, as nine of the 26 agtech companies IN2 has supported in the past are located here—including well-established local companies such as CoverCress, Renaissance Ag, Plastomics, and Impossible Sensing.

H.A.R.V.E.S.T. will function as a pipeline for startup development while lessening the risk that comes with pursuing new technology, Regagnon explains. Companies selected for the program get a non-dilutive award, but what’s arguably more valuable in Regagnon’s eyes is the collaborative support they get from the program’s technical partners: the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. (The Danforth Plant Science Center played this role for the original IN2 program.)

“Each of these companies are coming to us with an idea that they need proven out,” she says. “The biggest part of the offer from H.A.R.V.E.S.T. AgTech is actually paying for that proof of concept research to de-risk technology [and] make these companies more investable and attractive.”

Getting selected for the program isn’t easy. Company referrals come from “ecosystem partners” that are initially vetted by  the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (to see if the startup is working on fits with the institution’s expertise), Regagnon explains. Then H.A.R.V.E.S.T.’s 12-member external advisory board reviews each company, conducting interviews before narrowing it down to about five finalists per cohort, she adds.

The program’s foundation with IN2 has Phil Taylor, director of community ecosystem development at Bayer, “thrilled.” Taylor has served on IN2’s external advisory board for the past three years and will continue to that role with H.A.R.V.E.S.T.

“The thing that was really wonderful about IN2 was how it was driven by science; the startups were receiving this funding opportunity to advance a specific piece of science,” he says. “It wasn’t just another, ‘Oh, you’re a great startup, here’s a check,’ type of program.”

Getting ag startups directly connected with related academic expertise to run experiments or solve specific problems can be invaluable, Taylor says. 

It also means new companies face important pressure tests and critical questions about their viability early on, says Emily Lohse-Busch, executive director of the 39 North Innovation District, one of H.A.R.V.E.S.T.’s ecosystem partners.

“You don’t want something to get so far along and then for somebody at stage seven or eight to say, ‘Well, this was never going to work for this reason or this reason,’” she says. “The way that [this program] is structured makes it very hard for that to happen.”

And that’s especially critical in developing new technology in the agricultural space, since there’s less overall investment dollars flowing into these kinds of companies compared to other sectors.

Plus, by fielding referrals for companies from ecosystem partners, it removes some of the difficult work that comes in simply identifying new innovative startups, Lohse-Busch says.

“What H.A.R.V.E.S.T. is doing is outsourcing in the most positive way possible,” she explains. “None of the ecosystem partners are going to put forth companies that we haven’t worked with that we don’t know are legit and are really doing something interesting.”

Locating H.A.R.V.E.S.T. in St. Louis also helps to elevate everything already in the local agricultural innovation ecosystem. People and organizations with local ties stand to play a larger role within the program; at least three of the external advisory board members are local, as are two of the program’s ecosystem partners: BioGenerator and the 39 North AgTech Innovation District. 

With those two, St. Louis essentially gets two bites at the apple when submitting companies to be part of H.A.R.V.E.S.T.’s cohorts, which are organized around a specific innovation theme, Regagnon says. The theme of the first cohort will be revealed when applications open later this year, she adds.

“Depending on the technology, we would have a lot of companies that we would be able to submit,” Regagnon says. 

Taylor adds that the new program will help the region establish an identity beyond just the location where the science gets done.

“It just puts St. Louis front and center, not only as an execution vehicle for great science, but as a thought leader for the industry across the space,” he says. “We become the real epicenter of it. It’s sort of that force multiplying effect of it being here now just amplifies everything else within the ecosystem. ” 

And that’s a boon for St. Louis, because expertise from the region can still be connected to innovation even if the region isn’t necessarily the best place for a particular company to be located, Taylor adds. 

To this point, Regagnon says H.A.R.V.E.S.T. has an eye toward working with companies from all over the U.S. via AgTech Nation (which 39 North is a member of) globally with innovation hubs in Argentina, Brazil, Israel and the United Kingdom.

“We will just be able to step up the level of engagement and hopefully increase the offering to these ecosystem partners helping everyone get win-wins, but also helping them connect to other ecosystems across the world,” she says.

Having H.A.R.V.E.S.T. housed locally also means opportunities to link in with the nine St. Louis companies supported by IN2 in the past, as well as natural opportunities to bring in companies supported by the new program, Regagnon explains.

“It’s going to come to St. Louis a lot because our administrative home is here, a large concentration of companies are here, two ecosystem partners are here,” she says. “And when we bring that kind of event here we have an amazing opportunity to showcase the rest of our ecosystem, as I like to say, all of our shiny things in St. Louis.”