On the 21st of August, Accelerated Ag Technologies, the parent to PowerPollen, filed paperwork with the SEC that it had received debt financing of more than $600k. As you may recall, SPN profiled PowerPollen in early 2018, (https://spnewsnjt.wpengine.com/2018/01/powerpollen-boosts-yields-cuts-costs-growers/).
The company has created a new mechanism to harvest pollen and improve the creation of new seed. As company founder, Jason Cope said, ““One of the technologies that’s really been missing in the industry is the ability to harvest pollen. We’ve developed a technology that allows us to harvest pollen as it’s shedding in the field. We collect that pollen en masse and then preserve it.”
The recent raise was part of an ongoing effort to increase funding for the company’s proprietary technology. In a recent interview with Clay & Milk, Cope stated: “My partner and I are scientists and engineers, so business doesn’t come easy to us, we’ve been in the industry for a long time and working for a large company. We’ve both been involved in technology for our entire careers.” But the two engineers along with their colleagues which include additional engineers – focused on producing new seed and in different ways, “There are better ways to produce seed. It’s been done the same way for 90 years and PowerPollen is a new take on that.”
[Excerpting our earlier article] PowerPollen’s process allows for more control over the pollination process, reduces the labor needed for detasseling, and prevents pollen contamination. Those things add up to higher crop yields and more money in growers’ pockets.
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“[By our calculations,] this reduces their cost by about $1,300 per acre. That comes from both increased yield and purity and reduction of costs such as detasseling,” said Cope. “This is big for the seed companies because farmers are selling their seed for such a low price right now, there’s really no way seed companies can raise their process, and they’re looking for other cost-cutting measures.”
The company’s raise marks another successful one for AgTech in Iowa. Since the beginning of 2018, AgTech companies in Iowa have raised more than $29.8 million in seventeen ventures. A significant number of those companies have ties to Iowa State University and to central Iowa, including Ankeny where PowerPollen is based.
The company is a past recipient of IEDA loan funds and a winner of an entrepreneurial award from the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center.
To find out more about the company, check out their website at www.powerpollen.com.
