More than 25 animal health and agtech startups demonstrated their ideas and made pitches for funding to investors in Topeka at the 4th Plug and Play EXPO Day June 6.
Pitch groups for the event included: diagnostics & monitoring, pet food and ingredients, agrifintech and insurtech, sustainability, Internet of Things & sensoring, robotics, pet marketplaces, precision farming, biotechnology, alternative ingredients, and sustainable packaging.
Sharon Tuggle, founder and CEO of 5 Element Food Therapy, said her previous experiences pitching her company at Plug and Play keep her coming back.
“I gained access to the titans of the industry that typically I would never have access to previously. The relationship with GoTopeka and Kansas State University has been instrumental,” Tuggle said. “I feel a real connection to Topeka. This area is centrally located, and it makes it easy for me to ship my products.”
Tuggle’s company, 5 Element Food Therapy specializes in combining ancient medicine with modern nutrition to benefit animal health in areas such as allergies, joint and kidney, digestive, and respiratory supplement products. The company is based out of Arizona.
Camsens, an AI-based animal diagnostics company based in Germany, won “Startup Award Winner” in recognition of their participation and engagement with the Plug and Play accelerator program.
Andria Beal, CEO of EpiPaws, pitched her suite of at-home personalized pet care test kits. EpiPaws products include easy at-home age estimations, help with choosing the best food, blood tests, and information about whether to move forward with a medical procedure.
Beal said she hopes her participation in the event will lead to the ability to scale up pet age testing, biological age tests, partner-specific testing, as well as additional health insights. The company was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Nine startup companies pitched ideas during the agtech portion of the event, including:
AgriGator: providing soil solutions and services to help agribusinesses address challenges arising from climate and operational uncertainties for sustainable growth.
Athian: A platform to support livestock and environmental sustainability.
Gardskapital: An agriculture investment firm based in Sweden, connecting farmers with investors to accelerate the transition to more sustainable agriculture.
LandPrint: Based in Brazil, LandPrint measures the environmental quality of farms and develops economic and financial mechanisms to transition supply chains towards regenerative agriculture.
Mapana: Uses proprietary sensing technology to analyze plant systems for fertilizer and mineral intake with an AI enabled data and analysis tool for recommendations and soil health tracking.
Oaken: A B2B SaaS platform creating a world where managing, owning, finding, and investing in farmland is magical and effortless.
Poultry Patrol: A robotics company revolutionizing poultry production with autonomous robots.
RealmFive: Helps producers make better decisions about supply chain and labor with real-time data and insights.
TRIC Robitics: Helps farmers control pests and disease with ultraviolet light in place of chemical pesticides.
Jack Kilian, founder of Poultry Patrol, said his company creates poultry-tending robots that make turkeys healthier, leading to more profit for the farmers. According to Kilian, the robots create 8.8% more turkey meat while increasing their livability.
Adam Stager, the founder of TRIC Robotics, pitched his idea of being able to help farmers with pest control with ultraviolet light instead of pesticides. The system includes patent-pending UV technology and fully autonomous dosing platforms. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Throughout 2023, Plug and Play has sourced more than 1,100 startups, along with 400 direct startup introductions, and 105 accelerated startups.
To learn more about Plug and Play and their initiatives visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/
