Shane Schulz

Growers Holdings, Inc. offers an all-in-one crop planning, sales, and precision software. The company was founded by Steven Valencsin in 2011 and is headquartered in Garner, NC.

Secure Food Solutions, Inc. operates as a food safety diagnostics company. It develops technology solutions to detect dangerous pathogens in the global food supply. The firm’s solutions include special imaging – Aflatoxin and microbiological tests – vibrio vulnificus/parahaemolyticus. The company is headquartered in Martin, TN.

Beta Hatch, Inc. grows insect protein for animal feed. Its products include insect frass and meal worms. The company was founded by Virginia Emery and is headquartered in Seattle, Canada.

Agrisync, Inc. develops a mobile application that connects farmers, advisors, and other partners in agribusiness. Its mobile application and Web dashboard enables users to view, solve, and track agriculture support issues; and provides solutions for time tracking, team collaboration, exporting data to excel, sharing results, branding their dashboard, assigning tickets, and calling through a live video technology. The company was founded by Casey Niemann on July 1, 2014 and is headquartered in Des Moines, IA.

EarthSense, Inc. develops and produces robots for the agricultural industry. It offers TerraSentia, a robot that improves in-field plant trait data collection. The company was founded by Girish Chowdhary and Chinmay Soman in 2016 and is headquartered in Champaign, IL.

Grain Weevil Corp. has developed a grain bin safety and management robot called the Grain Weevil. Grain Weevil is based in the center of grain storage country and is driven by a strong sense of community. The robot engages with the surface of the grain to level, break crusts, conduct inspections, and feed grain into extraction augers. The American company aims to keep farmers safe and improve the quality of stored grain. The company was founded in 2020 by Zane Zents, Chad Johnson, and Benjamin Johnson, with Chad Johnson serving as CEO since then.

Global Neighbor, Inc. specializes in Directed Energy (DE) weed control technology, which was developed with support from the US Air Force SBIR Program. The company is based in an undisclosed location and was founded by Jon Jackson. Additionally, the American company is developing agriculture products with support from the USDA SBIR Program.

Synergy Technologies is the recognized leader in the poultry & meat industry, providing innovation solutions to some of the world’s largest protein providers. With multiple product offerings & a keen understanding of the processing environment, Synergy Technologies is well equipped to reduce & eliminate harmful pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, E.coli, Camphylobacter and Listeria. They are committed to offering practical, effective & economical antimicrobial programs to ensure the safety of the food supply

OmniLytics, Inc. develops solutions for infectious disease control. It offers bacteriophage solutions for pathogen control in the agricultural, food and water, industrial, pharmaceutical, and defense markets. OmniLytics was founded in 1954 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT.

Buckman Laboratories International, Inc. manufactures specialty chemicals for water treatment, pulp & paper and leather industries. It offers chemicals and services for the paper industries that include tissue, printing and writing, virgin pulp, packaging, recycled fiber and newsprint/mechanical grades applications and water treatment solutions. The company was founded by Stanley J. Buckman in 1945 and is headquartered in Memphis, TN.

Modular Robotics, Inc. develops, designs and manufactures toy robot construction systems. The firm’s products include cubelets and MOSS. The company was founded by Mark D. Gross and Eric Schweikardt in 2008 and is headquartered in Boulder, CO.

ST Drive LLC provides source-agnostic, intelligent power conversion equipment. Its products include PicoCell 2000, PicoBlender 2500 UL, and PicoCell 3500. The company was founded by Nikola Milivojevic, Gerhard Hautmann and Yusum Gurkaynak in 2013 and is headquartered in Louisville, CO.

Kindara, Inc. develops an application for men and women for serious fertility charting. It provides software, education and support to help women and couples learn about fertility, understand their bodies, and maximize their chances of getting pregnant. The company was founded by William Sacks and Katherine Bicknell in 2011 and is headquartered in Boulder, CO.

Edge Capital Partners LLC is a financial advisory firm that assists individuals, families, and institutions by creating investment management solutions. Its services include asset management, corporate finance, and risk management services. The company was founded by Lou Faust and Henry Morgan Jones and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

ConnectAndSell, Inc. provides software-as-a-service based conversation automation solutions. The firm’s products include Lightning, OutboundOnDemand, and InstantReponse. It serves software, professional services, financial services, health care, computer services, and media and entertainment industries. The company was founded by Shawn McLaren, Andrei Stoica and Ilya Druzhnikov in 2007 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, CA.

Agribotix LLC an agricultural intelligence company, provides drone-enabled technologies and services for precision agriculture applications. Its solutions include quad copters and fixed-wing drones; and FarmLens, a cloud-based data analysis and reporting solution for people using drones in agriculture. The company was founded by Paul Hoff on December 1, 2013 and is headquartered in Boulder, CO.

AG Vision International LLC provides investment and management consulting services. The company is headquartered in Lincoln, NE.

Innova Memphis Inc (Innova Memphis) is a venture capital subsidiary of Memphis Bioworks Foundation founded in 2007. The firm is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.

Independent Data Management LLC operates MyAgData, a cloud-based data system that converts data gathered from precision farming equipment into planting and harvesting reporting information for crop insurers, crop insurance agents, ag service providers, and the U.S. department of agriculture. The company was founded by Deb Casurella, Joe Meinhart, Jeremy Wilson and Don Bierman and is headquartered in Effingham, IL.

The American Institutes for Research is a behavioral and social science research and evaluation company. It also offers policy, practice and systems change services. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

Core Security Technologies, Inc. provides information technology security solutions. It offers core security attack intelligence platform, an attack intelligence platform that helps customers to identify the vulnerable areas of their IT environments to improve the effectiveness of remediation efforts and secure the business. The firm services include comprehensive penetration tests, application penetration tests, web services assessments, source code audits and wireless penetration tests. The company was founded by Emiliano Kargieman, Ariel Futoransky, Jonatan Altszul and Ivan Arce in 1996 and is headquartered in Boston, MA.

Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund LP invests in companies located in the US, with a special focus on rural America with an investment size of $2 - $10 million. The fund target companies operating in the fields of agricultural, life science, food, processing, information technology & logistics sectors. It provides debt and equity financing for growth transactions.

Morgan Stanley Venture Partners (MSVP) is a venture capital firm subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Investment Management Merchant Banking, which is ultimately owned by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MWD) founded in 1986.The firm is headquartered in New York.

USA Acquisition Corp. is a blank check company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The company was founded on 28th April, 2021 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Open Prairie Ventures Inc (Open Prairie) is a venture capital firm founded in 1999 by James M. Schultz. The firm headquartered in Effingham, Illinois.

NewLeaf Symbiotics, Inc. develops and commercializes a family of beneficial bacteria. It commercializes Pink Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophs bacteria that improves plant health, promote early growth, and increase crop yield. The company was founded by Stephen Kahn, Thomas R. Laurita and Michael Bielski in 2012 and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.

Kultevat, Inc. produces natural rubber products and mixed sugar feedstocks for the biofuels markets. It develops Taraxicum kok-saghya, an alternative source of natural rubber to replace materials from Hevea rubber trees. The company was founded by Daniel R. Swiger and is headquartered in Creve Coeur, MO.