POWERPOLLEN IN THE NEWS
The Associated Press: Autonomous tech is coming to farming. What will it mean for crops and workers who harvest them?
October 28, 2024 – According to The Associated Press, a growing number of companies are bringing automation to agriculture. It could ease the sector’s deepening labor shortage, help farmers manage costs, and protect workers from extreme heat. Automation could also improve yields by bringing greater accuracy to planting, harvesting, and farm management, potentially mitigating some of the challenges of growing food in an ever-warmer world.
The Article Highlights PowerPollen: Detasseling corn used to be a rite of passage for some young people in the Midwest. Teenagers would wade through seas of corn removing tassels – the bit that looks like a yellow feather duster at the top of each stalk – to prevent unwanted pollination.
Extreme heat, drought and intense rainfall have made this labor-intensive task even harder. And it’s now more often done by migrant farmworkers who sometimes put in 20-hour days to keep up. That’s why Jason Cope, co-founder of farm tech company PowerPollen, thinks it’s essential to mechanize arduous tasks like detasseling. His team created a tool a tractor can use to collect the pollen from male plants without having to remove the tassel. It can then be saved for future crops.
“We can account for climate change by timing pollen perfectly as it’s delivered,” he said. “And it takes a lot of that labor that’s hard to come by out of the equation.”
Company News: PowerPollen and VNR Seeds Collaborate to Bring Pollination Technology to India
September 25, 2024 – PowerPollen, a pioneer in pollination technology, announced the recent signing of a letter of intent with VNR Seeds of Chhattisgarh, India, to bring its on-demand pollination technology to Indian corn seed growers.
PowerPollen and VNR Seeds Collaborate to Bring Pollination Technology to India
Company News: PowerPollen Announces Leadership Changes to Drive Commercial Growth and Innovation
September 18, 2024 – PowerPollen, a pioneer in pollination technology, today announced strategic leadership changes to accelerate commercialization and drive ongoing innovation. These changes position the company for rapid revenue expansion and development of multiple business lines, capitalizing on its groundbreaking pollination-on-demand technology to revolutionize crop yields and sustainability in the global seed industry.
PowerPollen Announces Leadership Changes to Drive Commercial Growth and Innovation
Iowa Economic Development Authority Board Approves SSBCI Innovation Fund Award to PowerPollen
May 17, 2024 – Ames-based biotech company PowerPollen focuses on transforming agricultural productivity and sustainability with hybrid seed and grain production systems. The company developed a revolutionary “pollination on demand” technology for the global seed industry. PowerPollen was awarded a $1 million Innovation Acceleration Expansion Fund loan for IP development and evaluation, prototype development and equipment, product refinement and testing, project team and partnerships, and manufacturing.
Iowa Economic Development Authority Board Approves SSBCI Innovation Fund Award to PowerPollen
Company News: Liechtenstein Group Invests in PowerPollen To Unlock Potential for Major Food Crops
Vienna, April 30, 2024 – The Liechtenstein Group, known for its commitment to sustainable agriculture and innovative technologies, is leading a funding round of €22.5 million in the US company PowerPollen. PowerPollen has developed a unique pollination technology that allows pollen to be collected, preserved, and applied on-demand. This technology promises significantly better pollination and thus higher crop yields.
Liechtenstein Group Invests in PowerPollen To Unlock Potential for Major Food Crops
Company News: PowerPollen Expands In-field Technology To Grain Production
September 13, 2022 – PowerPollen® today announced the first in-season pollination solution available for corn production, In-Season Control™, described in a recent publication in Crop Science (link here). “Bringing our pollination technology to farmers has always been the goal because of the massive implications for generating value and overall sustainability. We have now validated a technology for growers to enhance their crop outcomes right up until pollination, thereby reducing risks and maximizing value per acre,” said Dr. Todd Krone, founder and CEO of PowerPollen.
Company News: PowerPollen and IPTV Large Scale Preservation Video
March 21, 2022 – PowerPollen’s technology was recently featured on Market to Market. We would like to thank Iowa Public Television for taking the time to put together a great story. We are improving the reliability and sustainability of agriculture one field at a time!
Company News: PowerPollen Appoints Paul Schickler as Chairman of the Board
January 27, 2022 – Former DuPont Pioneer President, Paul Schickler, brings over 30 years of experience commercializing global agricultural innovation and has been appointed chairman of PowerPollen’s Board of Directors, following a unanimous vote. Schickler succeeds John Bedbrook, who served as chairman since the formation of the board in 2016.
Company News: Jason Cope, CIPO, Discusses Value of Grain Production Patents
January 17, 2022- Jason Cope, PowerPollen Founder and CIPO, discusses how two recently granted patents continue to support PowerPollen’s overall goals to help farmers improve grain production.
Company News: Open Letter from Our Founders – Series B Close
January 6, 2022– Looking back, 2021 was another exciting year as we expanded our support of global seed production with our on-demand pollination technology and took steps to deliver on our promise to bring our technology to farmers.
Innovation Q&A with Todd Krone, PowerPollen CEO
September 17, 2021– From experimentation to patented preservation and application technology, Ankeny-based PowerPollen has grown as a leader in the seed industry.
Company News: PowerPollen Announces Commercial License Agreement With Bayer for Innovative Corn Seed Pollination Technology Designed to Increase Yield
July 28, 2021 – PowerPollen is excited to partner with Bayer for commercial use of our technology designed to help corn seed production growers increase their yields. PowerPollen’s Pollination-on-Demand technology gives farmers greater flexibility by allowing them to optimize the timing of pollinations.
Company News: PowerPollen Receives Patent for On-Demand Pollination Technology
March 24, 2021 – PowerPollen received a seed production patent for their innovative technology that applies preserved pollen to female plants on-demand, maximizing yield and reducing the impact of various factors that impede pollination.
PowerPollen: A Growing Game-Changer
February 19, 2021 – Dr. Todd Krone, CEO and co-founder of PowerPollen, explains the company’s innovative techniques in pollinating corn, wheat and rice. In an interview with @FutureFarmerMagazine, he describes the incredible impact the PowerPollen patented processes can have on agriculture, food security and the sustainability of food production.
Iowa Startup Takes Revolutionary Approach to Plant Pollination
February 4, 2021 – PowerPollen has revolutionized plant pollination by preserving corn pollen to apply to crops at the perfect time and has successfully increased yield by 20% or more in commercial hybrid corn seed fields.
Company News: PowerPollen Advances Cryogenetic Pollen Preservation for Corn Seed Production
October 29, 2020 – PowerPollen announced results of an in-field study to pollinate seed crop corn plants using pollen preserved for an entire year at ultra-low temperature. After preserving pollen for 365-days, PowerPollen is the first to use cryogenically preserved corn pollen across dozens of in-field female inbreds to produce strong seed quality and yield.
Brownfield Ag News: PowerPollen – A Company on the Rise
September 17, 2020 – One of the exciting new advancements in agriculture over the past five years has been the development of technology to collect, preserve and apply pollen “on demand” in seed corn production.
Global AgInvesting: PowerPollen Raises $13M Series B for Pollination On Demand Technology
August 17, 2020 – Iowa-based PowerPollen announced it has closed on $13 million raised through a Series B that included new investor Ag Ventures Alliance, and a cohort of return investors that included Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Company News: PowerPollen closes $13 million series B
August 12, 2020 – PowerPollen announced the close of its $13 million Series B funding round to accelerate global adoption in corn seed production and expand innovation to corn grain, wheat and rice. The round will expand PowerPollen’s ability to help customers increase yield and enable product innovation across a wider diversity of hybrids by preserving and applying pollen on-demand. New investor Ag Ventures Alliance and several return investors, including Iowa Corn Growers Association, materially participated in the round.
Capital Press: Companies say new collaboration advances hybrid wheat development
July 28, 2020 – A new partnership will allow researchers to more efficiently create higher-yielding wheat hybrids, representatives of BASF and PowerPollen say.
Company News: BASF and PowerPollen collaborate in research on hybrid wheat
July 15, 2020 – BASF and PowerPollen have signed an agreement to further develop and apply the company’s patented pollen preservation and application technology to improve cross-pollination and enhance BASF’s proprietary wheat program.
AgFunder News: Proximity to customers, funders, ag leaders make Iowa a perfect home, say 3 agtech startup founders
July 1, 2020 – “If you build it; the funding will come.” It might not be the exact quote that drove Kevin Costner to build a baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield in Field of Dreams, but it is the advice that many founders and entrepreneurs are following as they look for locations for their agtech startup businesses.
AgFunder July
Company News: Jason Cope, CIPO, Explains Importance of Global Patent Strategy
June 29, 2020 – As a start-up ag tech company, all forms of IP are important, but patents are particularly important because they allow us to protect the research our scientists and engineers have done and the discoveries that have stemmed from that work.
IP Q&A
FARM SHOW: Custom Pollination Used to Boost Row Crop Yields
June, 2020 – PowerPollen application services are boosting seed corn yields by as much as 44 percent. The process was previously limited to high-value crops with longer lasting pollen, but PowerPollen has started bringing custom pollination to row crops.
Seed Today: Ag Tech Innovations Showcase
May 20, 2020 – American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) held their first Ag Tech Innovations Showcase, which featured nine companies offering the latest advancements in technology and breeding techniques. (Read about PowerPollen on page 21)
Farm Progress: Maximizing pollen to boost corn seed output
May 13, 2020 – Startup PowerPollen is changing the way hybrid corn is produced, and Corteva is buying in.
Successful Farming Radio: On-Demand Pollination
April 27, 2020 – Commercial corn seed production requires very precise plantings of males and females. If the weather conditions aren’t just right, pollination can be affected which impacts a seed company’s products. An Iowa-based start-up company called PowerPollen has developed breakthrough technology to collect pollen, preserve it, and pollinate corn on-demand at exactly the right time..
Company News: Corteva, PowerPollen Announce Commercial Agreement
April 23, 2020 – Corteva Agriscience and PowerPollen announce a commercial agreement expanding the use of pollination-on-demand technology, enabling increased flexibility and productivity for Corteva’s commercial corn seed production.
Company News: PowerPollen Receives Novel Patents
April 17, 2020 – In the past six months, the US Patent Office has issued two foundational patents for our breakthrough technology that has the potential to become game-changers for how corn and other row crops are produced around the world.
Successful Farming: Start-Up Spotlight
January 27, 2020 – Commercial seed production is a 100-year-old system that hasn’t changed much. Now, one start-up is revolutionizing the process with technology that maximizes the potential in golden grains of pollen.
Silicon Prairie News: PowerPollen Receives Additional Funding
August 27, 2019 – PowerPollen parent company receives debt financing of more than $600k. The company’s raise marks another successful one for AgTech in Iowa.
Clay and Milk: PowerPollen Selected for the 2019 BIO World Congress Startup Stadium
July 8, 2019 – 32 startup companies selected to participate in Startup Stadium at BIO World Congress, held in Des Moines.
Business Record: PowerPollen Offers Farmers New Venue of Boosting Crop Traits
While other emerging companies traveled from California, Kentucky or Missouri, PowerPollen just made a quick trip across town to join the two-day Partnering for Growth Biotech Innovation Showcase.
Clay & Milk: PowerPollen – An AgTech Startup Turning a Problem into a Solution
An engineer and a scientist left their corporate jobs because they believed they could develop technology to improve seed and grain production. So Jason Cope and Todd Krone started PowerPollen.
Silicon Prairie News: PowerPollen Boosts Yields and Cuts Costs for Growers
Jason Cope and Todd Krone worked in the agricultural seed industry for roughly twenty years when they decided to confront a growing problem. The industry had become so laden with big mergers that developing technologies were being slowed in the process.
Greater Des Moines Partnership Podcast: PowerPollen Creates ‘Impossible’ Improvements to Seed Corn Yields, Raises $10M
As any Iowan will tell you, detasseling corn on a hot summer’s day as a teenager is almost a rite of passage. A Greater Des Moines (DSM) startup says they’ve developed a process to cross-pollinate corn that not only eliminates the need for that manual labor but also can increase yields by up to 80 percent.
PowerPollen Amphasys Testimonial Video
Control over pollen quality and pollination is a key success factor to ensure high quality seed and yield. PowerPollen uses the Ampha Z32 to check pollen quality before pollination, to improve pollen preservation and for rescue pollinations when natural pollination is not sufficient to get a good seed yield.