POWERPOLLEN IN THE NEWS
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.
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.