Empire State Development and Cornell University's Center for Regional Economic Advancement have announced that Every Body Eat is the $1 million grand prize winner of Grow-NY, a food innovation and agriculture technology business competition focused on enhancing the emerging food, beverage, and agriculture innovation cluster in Central New York, the Finger Lakes, and the Southern Tier.
Marking its third year, the competition attracted a group of startups and entrepreneurial talent from around the globe to compete in its two-day pitch competition and symposium. Every Body Eat—a company that makes, markets, and sells food that is free from the most common 14 allergens, corn, and sugar, so that people can enjoy it, together, regardless of dietary restrictions or preferences—was one of eight finalists to take home prize money during Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit.
"I want to congratulate all the companies that took place in the third round of the Grow-NY competition," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said. "This competition not only helps these companies continue to innovate but will further support New York State's regional economies by drawing even more worldwide attention to our globally renowned food and agriculture industry."
For year three of the Grow-NY Food and Ag Summit, more than 1,200 people registered for the event and audiences had the option to attend either in-person in Syracuse or virtually. The in-person event featured panel discussions on the biggest issues facing the food and agriculture industry, a Summit showcase of vendors and organizations supporting the startup community, and a pitch competition where the top 20 finalists presented their business ideas to a live audience. A panel of five independent judges—reflecting a depth and breadth of agriculture, food production, and entrepreneurial expertise—listened to each presentation and presented questions before determining the top winners.
During the awards ceremony Richard A. Ball (pictured above with Trish Thompson, co-founder and CEO of Every Body Eat), Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, announced the recipients of the $3 million in prize money. This included a $1 million grand prize, two $500,000 prizes, and four $250,000 prizes. Upon accepting the award, winners commit to operate in the Central New York, Finger Lakes, or Southern Tier regions for at least one year, while providing Grow-NY with a small equity investment stake in each entity.
The winners included:
Grand prize $1,000,000 Winner: Every Body Eat, from Chicago, Illinois
$500,000 Winner: Ascribe Bioscience, from Ithaca, New York uses naturally occurring signaling molecules from the soil microbiome to produce a novel class of broad-spectrum, non-toxic biopesticides that prime the plants' immune systems to enhance resistance to pathogens and increase crop yields.
$500,000 Winner: Neupeak Robotics, from Surrey, Canada, produces fully autonomous berry harvesters that are designed to work in all weather and lighting conditions, alongside human workers, to save farmers money by charging a fixed rate per pound of berries collected.
$250,000 Winner: DraughtLab, from Webster, New York, sensory tools for every level of sensory expertise, offering practical and approachable sensory analysis solutions that deliver real-world value to companies of any size.
$250,000 Winner: EmGenisys, from Houston, Texas, is a state-of-the-art embryo health assessment platform that provides the most comprehensive embryo evaluation system, improving pregnancy outcomes of assisted reproductive technologies in livestock.
$250,000 Winner: Nordetect, from Copenhagen, Denmark, provides rapid chemical analysis for nutrients in the agrifood industry. The company's first product is a lab-on-a-chip test for nutrients found in soil, water, and leaf samples, aimed at optimizing the amount of fertilizer used to cultivate crops.
$250,000 Winner: WeRadiate, from Buffalo, New York., has a turnkey solution to improve soil quality using hardware, software, and data technology, offering a complete array of tools to create high-efficacy and high-quality compost end products at all composting sites.
In addition, the competition also featured an "Audience Choice" award for the startup voted by the public to have the most innovative and promising pitch. Agri-Trak from Williamson, New York received $10,000 in prize money sponsored by Wegmans and $5,000 in marketing services from The Martin Group. Agri-Trak features a farm management application suite, developed especially for the apple industry. The suite includes customizable modules that provide real-time information in easy-to-read widgets allowing farms to make daily data-informed decisions.
"By creating new jobs and sharing new ideas, the winners of the first two rounds of the Grow Now-NY food and ag competition have made an important difference in our region's food and ag ecosystem in less than two years," said Jenn Smith, Program Director of Grow-NY, in a statement. "We're confident that this year's winners will continue that positive growth. The quality of the start-ups vying for awards this year was incredible—congratulations to all the winners!"
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