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April 07, 2021 | Tom Ballard

AgLaunch wins $750,000 EDA SPRINT Challenge grant

Memphis-based AgLaunch has been awarded a $750,000 grant under the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s SPRINT Challenge, officially known as the “Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology” program.

AgLaunch will use the funding for the “Resilient AgriFood Innovation Network” (RAIN) that is focused on scaling technology-based pandemic response in the agrifood supply chain by building and launching: (1) Farmer’s Toolbox; (2) Farm Robot Challenge; and (3) Resilient Crops=Healthy Food.

RAIN’s strategic initiatives will re-imagine and re-invigorate key segments of the agrifood supply chain by: (1) connecting a diverse group of urban and rural farmers to each other and to a portfolio of unique value-creation tools leveraging farm data, startup engagement, market transparency, and investment network; (2) prove and scale robotic solutions to lower labor-related barriers to specialty crop introduction using AgLaunch farm-centric accelerator model; and (3) instigate a focused process of crop identification, field trials, and scaling a diverse regional cropping system with vertically integrated local processing and direct-to-consumer models focused on health food.

According to the EDA announcement, the local match requirement is $190,000.


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