AgriNovus Indiana announces Velocity Accelerator program

INDIANAPOLIS — AgriNovus Indiana released a new report and announced that the 2026 Velocity Accelerator program is offering $75,000 in prize money to startups that can tackle three challenges.

1. Helping farmers work smarter, not harder.

Modern farms are drowning in data. However, much of this information is stuck in different, incompatible systems.

The Goal: Create “all-in-one” platforms that turn this data into easy-to-follow advice.

The Tech: Think “self-driving” farm equipment and robots that can pick specialty crops like watermelons or pumpkins to help with the statewide labor shortage.

2. Using food as medicine.

There is a growing movement to treat food as a core part of health care. However, health insurance companies need hard proof that “better calories” actually lead to fewer doctor visits before they will pay for them.

The Goal: Connect farmers directly with health-care providers and food companies.

The Tech: Systems that track how nutrient-dense a crop is and prove that eating it improves a patient’s health.

3. Turning waste into gold. Indiana is a leader in bio-innovation — using biology to create new products.

The Goal: Stop viewing farm leftovers as trash and start seeing them as raw materials.

The Tech: Using “precision fermentation” to turn things like corn stalks and soybean hulls into biodegradable plastics, clean fuels, or even new food ingredients.

“Velocity is an accelerator that focuses on the core challenges facing our agbioscience industry,” said Christy Wright, president and CEO of AgriNovus Indiana.

“This study defines where Indiana is best positioned to lead and gives participants the tools they need to create purpose-built, scalable technologies. We look forward to working with our entrepreneurial ecosystem to drive progress in these focus areas.”

Read the complete report at agrinovusindiana.com.