After receiving impressive presenting company applications from around the world, our selection committee diligently reviewed all the applications. They have made their selections!
We are excited to announce this year's InvestMidwest presenting companies.
Richardson, TX
We create miniature implantable, injectable, and wearable medical devices for health monitoring, diagnostics, and treatment of pharmacoresistant diseases in pets like epilepsy and Spinal cord injury. Our first product is MILO, an implantable Vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) will treat canine epilepsy to reduce or eliminate seizures. Epilepsy is the number one neurological disease in dogs and 40% of epileptic dogs are put down due to multiple reasons including pharmacoresistance response to drugs, low compliance to drug therapy, behavioral changes due to drugs and more. Auxilium is repurposing this VNS implant for treating canine epilepsy starting with pharmacoreistant animal subjects. There are more than 200 million pet dogs in the developing world and 1% are indicated to epilepsy making this a very large market with no solution outside of century old pharmaceuticals as the new drugs developed for humans requires very hard to achieve compliance for dosing in animals. Our therapy is an extension of the therapy used to treat epilepsy in human patients with an implantation population of more than 150,000 humans worldwide over the past three decades. A canine large animal model was used for pre-clinical studies for the VNS device and the same human device has been used for treating epilepsy in canines with good success.
Duesseldorf-Pempelfort, Germany
Corbiota aims to create a more sustainable modern farming by providing young animals with natural and animal-friendly nutrition. Feeding young animals with Corbiota’s earthworms strengthens their eubiosis, the natural balance of microorganisms in their gut and immune system and triggers their natural instincts. They grow up stronger, healthier and more resistant towards diseases, reducing the need for antibiotics treatment - one of the biggest global challenges in today’s farming.
St. Louis, MO
Natural rubber – from sunflower. Natural rubber (NR) has properties that can’t be matched with synthetic materials, but the supply is at risk – 90% comes from one geography and all comes from clones of a species that was wiped from its native continent, South America, by disease. We’re simply increasing the amount of rubber already produced by the sunflower plant to create a domestic supply, prevent further tropical deforestation, and reduce forced/child labor.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eiwa mobilizes the world’s agronomic knowledge by providing a data cloud for the agricultural ecosystem. We’ve built a SaaS Data Cloud that helps companies centralize and manage massive amounts of data to extract the most value out of it. We believe that agronomic knowledge development is and will continue to be in the hands of farmers, agronomists, and data scientists around the world; those closest to the reality of each farming environment. They just need the right tools to analyze data on farm input performance, management practices and environmental impact. We help agronomists around the world build their own conclusions based on data and share the insights with others. From simple correlations between agronomic traits, to the development of more complex predictive or prescriptive models, the future of Ag lies in the rapid growth of digital agronomic knowledge, developed by the entire farming ecosystem.
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Farm Health Guardian is a proven biosecurity software platform that helps you and your employees protect the health of your livestock and poultry, saving you time and money. There are two components to the platform:
Farm Health Protect is a biosecurity management system that records the movement of trucks and people on and off farm properties for rapid contact tracing in the event of a disease outbreak.
Farm Health Monitor is an animal health reporting system that improves communication between producers, vets and technical staff to enable early disease detection.
New York, NY
Using the power of genomics and artificial intelligence, GenoTwin is revolutionizing biosecurity and sustainability for livestock with advanced omics insights into infectious diseases. Our insights help reduce mortality and healthcare management costs on livestock farms.
Indianapolis, IN
Insignum AgTech enables plants to use their pigments to talk to farmers. Using gene editing, our plants turn color before a yield-reducing stress can be identified, providing information that gives farmers confidence to sustainably address the problem when, where, and only if needed. Currently, plants have the genetic capacity to yield over three times more per acre but unknown stresses reduce that potential. Farmers love our patented prototypes, they trust when their own plants communicate in a concrete, tangible way.
Durham, NC
We have developed a low-cost, low-energy drying system powered by a robotic material handling system to mine and manufacture fertilizer from manure. We're targeting hog farms in NC initially as they have a strong environmental need and large legacy resource to mine. Farmers buy our drying system. We subcontract its installation on the farm. We operate the system remotely from our central head office and generate recurring revenue from the fertilizer sales. We split to profits with the farmer to give them a payback on their asset. We have run our first full scale production system for 12 months, and have sold all the fertilizer we've produced. We've sold 2 new drying systems which are under construction now.
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St. Louis, MO
Solis is building the first premium research services provider for the growing AgTech innovation ecosystem. We offer enabling, highly specialized research capabilities to innovators so they can more efficiently deliver solutions to growers and consumers. We have launched with our Plant Pipeline as a Service, a core capability that enables the insertion or modification of genes in plants so that the next generation of food crops can be developed. Our well-validated process enables Ag innovators to generate transgenic and gene-edited crops in a quicker and more cost-effective manner than doing so on their own. We are now expanding with adjacent service offerings in molecular characterization and greenhouse grow-out capabilities, and have future expansion plans in insect bioassays, bioanalytical characterization, and other services.
Indianapolis, IN
For growers who rent beehives to pollinate 1/3 of our food, The Bee Corp offers Verifli, an infrared (IR) image analysis tool that allows users to save time and money resulting in improved pollination and crop value. This patented, NSF funded technology is currently being used across 6 crops in 6 countries, including large multi-national customers. The technology has several additional applications including farm decision support, animal health, and food storage.
West Lafayette, IN
Amplified Sciences is a molecular diagnostics company unlike other diagnostics companies due to their ultra-sensitive molecular sensing technology with composition of matter IP exclusively licensed from Purdue University. The technology is disease state agnostic, can detect to the single molecule level, scales easily to point of care, and provides a very favorable cost structure for their platform of reagents. The first application – early detection of pancreatic cancer - is an assay that will quickly prove the investment thesis due to large unmet medical need and a favorable reimbursement path. The team has delivered a working prototype and published proof of concept data. The company has closed a $1.2M Seed which will enable technical and clinical validation of the PanCystPro product and position the company for launch of a commercializable lab developed test in 2022.
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Axolotl supplies unique 3D bioink solutions that are compatible with multiple bioprinting platforms. Our inks incorporate both biological and printability requirements for sensitive cell types for advanced tissue engineering applications.
St. Louis, MO
Benmedica is a proven, industry leading solution to substantially reduce drug costs in real-time seamlessly at the point-of-prescribing (PoP) and point-of-sales (PoS). We have a track record of saving plans $12 per member per year (PMPY) and will be expanding the potential savings to $16M to $28M per year for every 1M members before refill savings with an upside potential of $167+ PMPY with planned roadmap capabilities. Our currently deployed solution presents primary care physicians and specialists with lower cost drug alternatives that are therapeutically similar directly within nearly all EMRs without integration over the existing Surescripts backbone. Benmedica has the most intelligent drug alternatives based upon a solution years in the making applying substantial pharmaceutical clinical expertise and a sophisticated software platform exceeding other capabilities including even the largest brands.
Ann Arbor, MI
At GreenMark we’re aiming to transform the dental experience through early detection and noninvasive/atraumatic treatment. We're trying to “save the world's teeth”. Dental caries (tooth decay) is the world's most prevalent chronic disease. Over 95% of Americans suffer from caries, and in 2022 the WHO declare we're in a Global Oral Health crisis. Even before the pandemic, 1 in 5 Americans had untreated caries, and the ADA reported that in any one-year period anywhere for 100 to 200 million Americans do NOT see the dentist. We have a biobased nanoparticle technology platform with products that we are now in the middle of launching, that 1) find early stage caries lesions in enamel (way before you see it on an X-ray), and 2) a noninvasive targeted treatment that delivers hydroxyapatite crystals back into the subsurface of tooth enamel.
Columbia, MO
In six peer-reviewed journals, Healium has been shown to slow the fast activity in the brain, reduce anxiety, and increase feelings of positivity in as little as four minutes. Healium's proprietary tech connects biometric data from any consumer wearable to the metaverse. It is the world's first AR | VR platform controlled by a brain-computer interface and the user's heart rate via wearables people already have in their homes. We give people 'superpowers' to control virtual worlds with their minds and hearts. Our patented technology allows the user to modify and recommend virtual, mixed, or augmented reality content via EEG, heart rate, and other biometrics. Healium creates biometrically controlled content for its immersive media channel and also licenses its IP.
Dayton, OH
Kilele is focused on bending the curve for chronic disease management and outcomes as well as costs of care. Kilele’s CGM+ builds on the highly evolved form factor, high user acceptance, high physician acceptance, and massive prior technological investment in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) platforms. But today, CGMs are not platforms at all – they all only measure one thing: glucose. And the CGM OEMS are investing tens of millions in R&D just to get those systems to measure one or two other parameters, like ketones or lactate.
Scottsdale, AZ
Digital Health is a trillion-dollar market opportunity focused on new efficiencies to address individual health needs from wellness – to costly, complex chronic care. The industry is rapidly moving to Value-Based and Consumer-Directed healthcare. The recent pandemic accelerated the need for improved efficiencies in how healthcare is delivered, and innovative ways to engage consumers in managing their health outside the point of care. “PayVider” (Payers+Providers) models are emerging, as well as Hospital@Home, both needing to improve their economics in extending care to the home.
St. Louis, MO
OxaluRx was founded on the idea that inhibition of the enzyme glycolate oxidase (GO) could reduce the overproduction of calcium oxalate and subsequent deposition in the kidney, vasculature and other tissues. Originally, this was an orphan disease opportunity for patients with PH1 (5K patients in US/Eur). New data has implicated the same gene (AGT) is downregulated in recurrent kidney stone formation that is seen in diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH (1.5M patients in US).
Chicago, IL
Surgimatix has developed a proprietary, soft tissue fixation platform technology to improve outcomes and reduce costs in minimally invasive surgical (MIS) procedures. Surgimatix has secured FDA 510(k) clearance on a single-use medical device to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and mitigate post-operative patient pain in the $500M US hernia market. Our patented device has a seamless, 1:1 fit to the existing general surgery workflow and requires little/no training for surgeons to use the product. We deliver the benefits of suture-like fixation of internal tissues specifically for minimally invasive procedures.
Boston, MA
Zea is a biologics drug developer with a faster, more cost effective and linearly scalable manufacturing platform. Zea is partnering with some of the leading universities with therapeutic development programs ideal for our platform and development expertise.
Austin, TX
We have proven how to use plant fibers to reduce petrochemicals used in multiple classes of polymer materials. Harvesting fibrous plants and producing plant fiber-based plastic alternatives sequesters CO2 while creating mechanically superior products. By developing novel research, we are producing commercially viable plant-based plastic alternatives and sustainable materials that improve the health of our planet and offer solutions to planet-harming petroleum-based plastics. The company’s products have the potential to transform materials technology and the plastics industry by providing a means for manufacturers to reduce their carbon footprint while minimal effort. The company has two products ready to market: a pelletized biothermoplastic feedstock and a biothermoset resin building material. The initial objective is to reduce the amount of petrochemical content in essential polymer-based materials. Success will feed research and disruption in other economic sectors.
St. Louis, MO
Boat Planet is the first platform to connect boaters with local marine professionals that maintain, fix, and clean boats. Boat Planet makes it easier for boaters to message pros, get pricing, and pay all in one platform. On the other side, we're making it easier for pros to make money. Marine pros can accept or decline jobs, message boaters, send pricing, and receive payment faster than ever.
St. Louis, MO
Buswell Biomedical is developing the Upward Mobility, a mobility device for use in Rehabilitation Hospitals. My day to day tasks involve product development, proof of feasibility, and market research. We are developing a Machine Learning algorithm that the device will use to determine if a patient is unstable. A Machine Learning library is being developed from data collected using a specialized harness. To develop this library, more than 100 samples have been collected from healthy people sitting and standing while wearing this specialized harness with 4 embedded sensors.
St. Louis, MO
Dataplant is a sentient customer success platform built on procedural generation technology that arms customer success professionals with the tools to source, analyze and act on their data within minutes. All the client has to do with Dataplant is import their data and tell us a few details about the data. Our AI/ML system then generates all of the tables, reports, dashboards, page views, and insights automatically. Allowing the user to curate which insights, charts, and views they want to keep by favoriting things they like and archiving others. DataPlant also allows users to build truly data driven customer health scoring processes all without being technical or requiring tons of resources.
Pittsburgh, PA
We provide clean electricity, through the Farm to Flame Generator, a carbon-neutral electricity asset that is just as reliable as diesel…but half the cost, with no smoke and no odor. We use fuels like sawdust, cornstalks, and paper waste for electricity generation. Our 30KW Generator can power 3 homes, a commercial building, or a medium sized farm. We supply up to 500KW with one generator.
Champaign, IL
HabiTerre is a farming financial risk modeling company. They help financial institutes, public agencies, and individual producers to quantify, manage, and reduce financial risks in the farming-related business. HabiTerre aims to monitor and model every crop field’s financial risks in the United States and worldwide. They have developed revolutionary approaches to rate historical and real-time financial risks for each crop field by integrating advancing technology in three domains, satellite/corp modeling, artificial intelligence, and agricultural finance modeling.
Holland, MI
A new approach to making and distributing work furniture that's intuitive to specify, fast to deliver, and affordable by comparison to current equivalent products (20% less).
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Traverse City, MI
Most groundwater pollution sites in the US are related to the storage of gasoline and diesel fuel, basically your typical gas station. The numbers vary based on the operator, but at any given time, between 15% and 25% of all gas stations have some kind of on-going pollution problem. Other industries like manufacturing firms, chemical companies, dry cleaners, even home heating fuel tanks also contribute to the problem. The SampleServe solution to this outdated methodology, is a software platform that ties together all the different users under one central database. This software platform has a web-based project management tool that can save Project Managers time on scheduling and communication.
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Sawback Technologies is a near-surface sensing company, that has developed a proprietary solution to collect, visualize and analyze near-surface data to identify underground utilities, fluid leaks, soil layers, and infrastructure health.