SAN FRANCISCO and INDIANAPOLIS - SVG Partners, a California-based venture and innovation firm, announced Thursday (Nov. 29) the expansion of its West Coast-based THRIVE AgTech program to the Midwest to focus specifically on animal health and support agriculture advancements.

The expanded accelerator follows on the heels of Forbes AgTech Summit held in Indianapolis this fall. The collaboration will build a bridge between THRIVE Silicon Valley and the Midwest with new corporate partners, including the National Pork Board and AgriNovus Indiana, Elanco Animal Health, long-term THRIVE partner Land O’Lakes and with startup services from Purdue Foundry and collaboration opportunities with Purdue University.

With this expansion, THRIVE aims to develop a targeted pipeline of livestock management and animal health startups, validating and scaling new technologies for the livestock vertical and expand its support of emerging plant science and biotechnology startups.

“Monitoring animal health and preventing animal disease outbreaks is vital to our food supply chain,” said SVG Partners founder and CEO John Hartnett. “We look forward to leveraging our new partnerships with the National Pork Board and AgriNovus Indiana, as well as our existing partner Land O’Lakes to provide strategic and technical expertise and key resources to startup companies developing technologies for livestock producers.”

THRIVE also welcomes the National Pork Board to its AgTech Venture and Innovation Platform. The National Pork Board, funded by more than 60,000 U.S. pork producers and pork importers, centers its industry’s work on reinforcing pork’s as a sustainable and responsibly raised protein.

“We look forward to working closely with THRIVE to accelerate animal health technologies. This partnership aligns well with our producers’ ongoing efforts to build upon our foundation of providing a healthy, safe, environmentally sustainable product for the food supply chain,” said Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board. “Over the past several decades, pork producers have decreased the carbon footprint and both land and water usage. Technology is critical to driving sustainable, efficient production through a commitment to environmental sustainability and animal welfare.”

Elanco, a leading animal health company with its headquarters in Greenfield, Indiana, also joins the program. The company works to provide veterinarians, food producers, and pet owners with the tools needed to help animals live healthy lives.

“We are pleased to see THRIVE AgTech expand into the Midwest, especially at a time when Indiana’s AgBioScience innovation ecosystem is flourishing,” said Aaron Schacht, executive vice president of innovation, regulatory and business development at Elanco. “We believe programs such as THRIVE can provide a valuable and complementary path for the development of next-generation technologies in animal health. We’re looking forward to the opportunities this will bring.”

This program expansion will bring together existing and new partnerships with corporates, academia, investors and startups to foster new agtech opportunities for the region’s economy.

Purdue University is Indiana’s land-grant university with a nationally ranked College of Agriculture and College of Veterinary Medicine. The Purdue Foundry is a startup accelerator that manages the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Existing THRIVE partners such as Corteva, EY and Trimble already have significant resources in the Midwest and will help to deepen THRIVE’s activity in row crop production agriculture activity there. As another strategic geographical partner, Purdue Foundry will help to root THRIVE expansion in the Midwest by connecting university talent with THRIVE’s network and resources.

A THRIVE partner since 2016, Land O’Lakes is committed to modernizing agriculture through digitalization.

THRIVE’s expansion into the Midwest was announced today (Thursday, Nov. 29) during AgriNovus’ fourth annual Agbioscience Innovation Summit in Indiana.

For more information about THRIVE, visit www.thriveagtech.com.

Source: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/