POWERPOLLEN IN THE NEWS

CropLife Cultivating Tomorrow: How a Solid IP Strategy Remains the Bedrock of AgTech Innovation

Editor’s note: “Cultivating Tomorrow” is a special series that shares insights from C-suite executives at leading AgTech companies. Its aim is to highlight the experiences of AgTech leaders driving agricultural transformation today. In this installment, Jason Cope, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at PowerPollen, discusses how protecting your ag tech ideas today can drive sustainable growth, investment, and breakthrough innovation for the future.

Company News: PowerPollen Appoints Kavi Chawla as Chief Growth Officer to Lead Commercial Expansion

Ames, Iowa – June 4, 2025 – PowerPollen, the leader in breakthrough pollination technology for increased agricultural productivity and profitability, announced the appointment of Kavilash (Kavi) Chawla as Chief Growth Officer. Chawla joins the executive leadership team to drive PowerPollen’s commercial expansion and strengthen its market leadership in sustainable agriculture.

Company News: PowerPollen Appoints Carl Cox as CEO to Lead Next Decade of Innovation

Ames, Iowa — June 2, 2025 — PowerPollen, a leader in breakthrough pollination technology for increased agricultural productivity and profitability, announced the appointment of Carl Cox as Chief Executive Officer. Cox, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer as well as interim CEO, brings extensive operational and commercial leadership as PowerPollen accelerates the scaling of its patented pollination technology for new crops and global markets.

Company News: PowerPollen Receives Foundational Patent for Groundbreaking Pollen Storage Methodology

Decades of Discovery and Commercial Field Data Consistently Shows Yield Improvement Storage Patent Latest in IP Portfolio for Industry Leading Pollination Tech Stack

May 6, 2025—PowerPollen, an agtech company improving crop pollination for increased agricultural productivity and profitability, has received U.S. Patent 12,245,587 for its groundbreaking process of using solid particulates blended with fresh pollen grains to protect pollen’s viability during storage. As the industry leader in commercial scale pollen collection, application and storage, PowerPollen’s IP strategy has been a key part of protecting their innovation while rapidly scaling to support global seed companies and farmers since the company was founded in 2015.

CropLife’s Cultivating Tomorrow Series: Delivering Value to Accelerate AgTech Innovations at Scale

Editor’s note: “Cultivating Tomorrow” is a special series that shares insights from C-suite executives at leading AgTech companies. Its aim is to highlight the experiences of AgTech leaders driving agricultural transformation today. In this installment, Carl Cox, CEO at PowerPollen, says AgTech companies must apply data and insights in a more surgical fashion – rather than a one-size-fits-all.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.