F3 Tech attended the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2024 convention in Salt Lake City and played an instrumental role in this year’s Ag Innovation Challenge. The Challenge looks to identify the top entrepreneurs who are addressing both traditional challenges farmers face on their operation, such as access to labor, optimizing yield, and reducing operating costs, to entrepreneurs who are addressing new challenges facing farmers and rural communities.

As part of a team that also included AgLaunch, the two accelerator programs provided a daylong training session to the ten semi-finalist startup companies participating in the Challenge.  F3 Tech’s afternoon session highlighted best practices in the areas of commercialization and investment readiness.  The session also included a one-hour panel of investors who engaged with the semi-finalists, providing advice and answering questions about what investors are looking for in startup companies and what criteria influences their investment decisions.

In the coming year, F3 Tech will be working with the Maryland Farm Bureau to initiate a Maryland State version of the Challenge. The intent is to help inspire, motivate, and create a pipeline of prospective ag innovation applications from Maryland and establish a greater presence of Maryland startups in the national competition.