By KEVIN WALKER Michigan Correspondent OVERALND PARK, Kan. — Sprint announced early last month its fifth annual round of Sprint Accelerator recipients – companies it describes as small startups that are doing innovative things, including in the world of food and agriculture. Sprint, the telecommunications company, conducts its Accelerator program with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), a large cooperative that says it represents 8,000 dairy farmers. The DFA wants to increase the consumption of dairy, a clear plus for its farmer members. Although the exact benefits of the program are not clear, a March 5 press release from Sprint describes the Accelerator program as a “90-day, immersive program.” Recipients of the Accelerator award, nine in all this year, will “work directly” with leaders from Sprint and DFA as well as the large agricultural lender CoBank and “other industry experts and mentors.” “We’ve found tremendous value in this program and leveraging innovation that’s happening with startup companies in the ag tech space,” said Kevin Strathman, senior vice president of finance at DFA. “We’re focused not only on building partnerships that can help solve problems and benefit our members on their farms, but it’s exciting to add dairy food startups into the mix. “We’re looking forward to working with these companies to help grow their businesses and ultimately drive consumer demand for dairy.” One of the awardees in the dairy food product category was MoPro Nutrition, a company based in Birmingham, Mich. MoPro makes and sells a special Greek yogurt, infused with “CFM Whey Protein Isolate.” The yogurt tastes great, the company says, and provides more protein than the average nutritional breakfast bar. The yogurt is the only kind made with the cross-flow microfiltration method (CFM), said MoPro CEO Michael Moran in a report in DairyFoods.com on Oct. 17, 2017 (a company spokesperson couldn’t be reached for this article). Other awardees have a more direct application to agriculture, including Pharm Robotics of San Jacinto, Calif. This company is developing robotic systems to automate administration of animal health products in dairy cows. Ripe Technologies of San Francisco is another Accelerator recipient. This company is seeking to transform the food supply chain using blockchain (a type of digital transaction) technology to “enable data transparency.” Another firm, SomaDetect of Fredericton, New Brunswick, is also an awardee. The Canadian company is a precision dairy firm that is creating an inline system for measuring every compound of interest in raw milk, including fat, protein, somatic cells, progesterone and trace antibiotics. “We have a diverse and exciting group of companies joining our program this year,” said Doug Dresslaer, managing director of the Sprint Accelerator. “For Sprint, we’ve recruited companies that align with our IoT (Internet of Things) team’s core business strategies and for DFA, we’ve not only brought in cutting-edge agricultural technology companies, but we also have three dairy food product companies in this year’s cohort.” More about the Accelerator program can be found online at www.sprintaccelerator.com |
