The Ag Startup Engine was awarded the 2021 LWBJ Impact Award at the Technology Association of Iowa’s annual Prometheus Award event Nov. 4 in Des Moines, IA.
Kevin Kimle, teaching professor, is the director of the Ag Startup Engine, the agtech fund that the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative helped start in 2016. The idea for the Ag Startup Engine was born through Kevin Kimle’s experience teaching and encouraging ag entrepreneurship at Iowa State University. He saw the drive and excitement in his students after they participated in the Ag Entrepreneurship Initiative at ISU and he wanted to find a way to support the students and investors looking for a way to invest in these startups.
"We're coming up on five years of ASE, and it's been a whirlwind. We've raised two funds and invested in 24 companies (so far) who have between them created hundreds of jobs, raised millions of dollars, exited three times, and are changing agtech for the better. Thank you to our community of portfolio companies and investors, to LWBJ and the Technology Association of Iowa, and to our peers in agtech!"
LWBJ is a leading international CPA, business advisory and M&A firm based in West Des Moines, Iowa.
Read the award presentation.