SVG Ventures and Forbes have announced that Israeli-based Autonomous Pivot and U.S.-based Bloomfield Robotics are the two winners of the Innovation Icon Award at the seventh annual Demo Day at the Forbes-THRIVE Future of Food Summit.
During Demo Day, 12 global startups handpicked from an applicant pool of almost 700 companies across 78 countries pitched in front of a record-setting crowd of 2,500 top agriculture food and technology corporations, entrepreneurs, universities, and investors for startup funding.
Autonomous Pivot develops an intelligent platform for optimizing irrigation, fertigation and crop-protection in fields irrigated by irrigation-pivot. Bloomfield Robotics‘ crop assessment services rely on a unique and cost-effective combination of ground-based image capture and deep learning-based processing to help farmers efficiently, effectively, and affordably assess crops. They will receive up to $250,000 in investment from SVG Ventures as the joint winners of the 2021 Forbes | THRIVE Innovation Icon Award.
“Our Demo Day winners are a true reflection of how important sustainability, innovation, and geographical diversity are to disrupting the agrifood industry globally,” John Hartnett, Founder & CEO of SVG Ventures | THRIVE, said in a news release. “This year’s cohort was fiercely competitive, which is why we shine a spotlight on them through the Forbes–SVG Ventures partnership, and we can’t wait to see how these companies will continue to transform our food supply.”
“Each year, Demo Day gathers rich ideas and transformative technologies from passionate and dedicated entrepreneurs,” said Sherry Phillips, SVP of ForbesLIVE. “We are delighted to be able to connect these ideas with an eager audience and look forward to continuing to amplify innovative technology solutions on a global scale with THRIVE.”
The Demo Day judging panel comprising of executives from Valmont, Cavallo Ventures, Farm Credit Canada, Kubota, Trimble, and THRIVE thoroughly evaluated each of the finalists and the coveted 2021 Forbes | THRIVE Innovation Icon Award was presented to joint winners, Automonous Pivot and Bloomfield Robotics. The companies that competed at Forbes|Thrive Future of Food Summit were Arva Intelligence, Autonomous Pivot, Bloomfield Robotics, Foodlocker, Goanna Ag, Healthy Cow, Lucent Biosciences, Pheronym, Rubens Technology, Serket, Syocin Biotech, Transpirational.
