Bruce Taylor and John Harnett Name the Ten Thrive Accelerator Finalists During the SVG/Forbes Reinventing America AgTech Summit

Monday, Dec. 15th, 2014

by Kyle Braver

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SALINAS, CA - The ten AgTech finalists who will represent the industry at the Thrive Accelerator Program in Salinas, California this January have been named. This initiative, which was sponsored by SVG Partners and Forbes, shifted through over forty entries from innovative leaders in Peru, Israel, Switzerland, Panama, France, UK, Ireland and from across the USA at Thrive Accelerator's Seed Camp.

"This is AgTech's moment," John Hartnett, CEO of SVG Partners, elaborated. "This Accelerator has the potential to bring some incredible energy and disruptive innovation to one of the world's most important industries."

The various pitches were judged by a select group of expert mentors from Forbes, Taylor Farms, Western Growers Association, Smith Group and Verizon.

Left to Right: Salinas City Manager Ray Corpuz, John Hartnett, Steve Forbes, Bruce Taylor, Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter

According to a press release, representatives from these industry leaders will work with the finalists during during the Thrive Accelerator Program from January 7 through March 4, 2015. The 10 named finalists include:

California Safe Soil, LLC (Sacramento, CA)
GeoVisual Technologies (Boulder, CO)
GreenOnyx (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Harvest Automation (Billerica, MA)
Innovative Green (Scottsdale, AZ)
Inteligistics, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA)
Lotpath, Inc.(Fresno, CA)
mOasis, Inc. (Union City, CA)
Nuritas (Dublin, Ireland)
UrbanFarmers AG (Zürich, Switzerland)

"We were all extremely impressed with the quality and ingenuity of all the solutions presented during yesterday's Seed Camp," said Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms and a Thrive Accelerator Mentor. "Selecting just 10 of these companies to move on to participate in the full Accelerator was an incredible challenge."

At the end of the Thrive Accelerator Program, each of the finalists will have the opportunity to enter the event's final Demo Day. Winners from the Demo Day will be prominently displayed during the SVG/Forbes Reinventing America AgTech Summit on July 8 and 9, 2015. They will also be able to compete for funding and the chance to form business connections with some of the industry's top companies.

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