Four Iowa companies with a stake in agriculture are the first investors in a new startup business accelerator designed to develop innovative ag technologies. DuPont Pioneer, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company, John Deere and Peoples Company will each give 100-thousand dollars to get the initiative started. Farmers Mutual vice president, Scott McEntee, sees it as an investment in economic development.

“We feel that bringing ag-related technology not only benefits the companies that are currently in the state, but the state’s economic and cultural growth,” McEntee says. Deere and Company director of information solutions, Lane Arthur, sees it as an investment in innovation.

“The ag tech accelerator for us, it really advances something that is paramount for John Deere and that is how do we increase adoption of precision ag both here in Iowa and around the world,” Arthur says. The first class of six startups will begin in 2017. It’s modeled after the Global Insurance Accelerator, which has graduated two classes of six startup companies each since 2014. The Greater Des Moines Partnership and the Cultivation Corridor in Central Iowa are behind the efforts.

(Radio Iowa)