Four organisations have been shortlisted as finalists for the 2023 Innovation Showcase of the forthcoming Regenerative Agriculture and Textiles Summit.
- The four innovators are: Materra, Trace, Good Agriculture and Soil in Formation (SiF).
- The two-day Summit gets under way in Washington DC, US on 14 November.
The showcases: The four finalists are:
- Materra designs solutions to grow and source future-proof cotton—for farmers, fashion brands and the planet. Working with and for farmers, the company designs and implements custom cotton farming and sourcing programmes for fashion and textile brands, built to be climate resilient, transparent and equitable. The company believes that critical impact data needs to come directly from the source, so its own AI-powered technology complements its programmes and raw fibre so that brands and their customers know exactly what went into making their cotton. Materra’s Cotton-As-A-Service is setting the template for supply chain transparency, making direct sourcing the new normal.
- Good Agriculture is an AI-powered farm business management platform that helps farmers spend less time on back-office activities and do more of what they do best: focus on the farming operations. Good Agriculture simplifies the full stack of farm finance including federal incentive programs, crop insurance, cost of production, and agriculture taxes. Good Agriculture has 24 active customers generating $1,500 in monthly recurring revenue and is growing 20% month-over-month.
- Based in Nashville, Trace is a first-mover brand of hemp fibre and Climate Beneficial cotton tampons and pads cultivated in traceable supply chains that honour self, earth, and community kinship in equal measure. With patent-pending fibre technologies and innovative farm-to-flow sourcing, Trace successfully integrates regenerative farming and true transparency into the global commoditised period care industry, transforming personal care into a pathway for carbon sequestration and soil restoration at scale. As founding members of the California Cotton and Climate Coalition (C4), Trace endeavours to inspire change in the way wellness encounters sustainability both in the individual experiences of people with periods and in the absorbent hygiene industry status quo.
- Soil in Formation (SIF) has developed groundbreaking electrochemical sensors that enable the auditable measurement of soil carbon and soil health risks at a global scale, both in -situ and in real time, with the same medical accuracy as biomedical sensors for measurement of human health, already achieving accuracy levels of 95%+ when compared to laboratory testing. SIF fully owns the IP to its sensors that were developed by the University of Texas at Dallas and validated by Texas A&M University both in-lab and in-field. SIF has developed a global contextual soil platform with Texas A&M and ASU, to add vital context to the primary soil data provided by SIF and others.
THE SELECTORS: The selection committee comprises
- Lisa Sebesta; Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Fresh Source Capital;
- Renee Cheung; Managing Partner, Bonterra Partners;
- Brian Dawson; Partner, Biome Capital;
- McKenzie Smith; Principal, Tin Shed Ventures, Patagonia.
