Now in its third year, a record breaking 251 start-ups from 53 countries applied to be part of The Pearse Lyons Accelerator. Their aim is to accelerate the business development of each of the ten selected companies culminating with the start-ups presenting on the main stage at ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference in Lexington, Kentucky, USA in May. More than 4,000 Agri industry leaders from over 70 countries will be in attendance.

The Pearse Lyons Accelerator was the brainchild of the late Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder of animal nutrition company, Alltech. In the early 1980s, he developed the company in his garage beginning with just $10,000. “Through the Pearse Lyons Accelerator we carry on my father’s the legacy, his entrepreneurial spirit and his desire to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs who are transforming the face of agriculture.” said Mark Lyons, president and CEO of Alltech.

Other accelerator companies selected hail from Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Portugal and Spain. Mark continues, “Our class of 2019 start-ups focus on all aspects of agriculture including animal welfare, meat quality, crop health and increased productivity. The final 10 reflect the full breadth of Alltech's global operations and we believe that their technologies can make us and our customers more sustainable, profitable and innovative.”

Based in rural Moone, Co. Kildare, TERRA NutriTECH, a family run company recently announced news of a €2 million investment towards Research and Development and global expansion plans. The innovative technologies were developed by brothers Tom and Padraig Hennessy who founded the company in 2012. Farmers are the beneficiaries of their product design with important elements being the accurate delivery of supplements, elimination of waste and labour reduction which leads to improved herd health and higher farm profitability.

This new accolade follows on from Terra NutriTECH being awarded the overall winner of the National Enterprise Awards, a first for a Kildare company and winners of the Google Adopt-a-Startup program 2018. These awards reflect the progress Terra NutriTECH continues to make with its innovative and disruptive technologies.

“What makes this accelerator unique is the commitment from Alltech’s leadership to actively mentor the start-ups. This now includes our president and CEO, Dr. Mark Lyons who is directly involved in the programme and sees collaboration through innovation as a key growth strategy for Alltech,” said Robbie Walker, Alltech’s Programme Director of The Pearse Lyons Accelerator.

“Alltech has always been a thought leader in the industry and the focus is bringing the latest and greatest innovations to their customers. Running the accelerator gives an opportunity to learn about these new technologies and showcase them to customers”.

Pearse Lyons Accelerator - 2019 Cohort

● SomaDetect (Canada) - In-line sensor that measures every critical indicator of dairy quality (fat, protein, somatic cell counts, progesterone, and antibiotics) from every cow at every milking.

● Higher Steaks (United Kingdom) - Using state-of-the-art cell culture techniques, a small sample of cells from an animal will be expanded by feeding these cells , when these cells have grown they become the desired meat product.

● SwineTech (United States) - SwineTech is the world’s leading solution to reduce piglet crushing and pre-weaning mortality, and for monitoring sow health.

● Breedr (United Kingdom) - The world's first app for livestock farmers that uses shared data to optimise yield, quality and profitability.

● Biome Makers (United States) - Measuring crop health and functional biodiversity by using DNA sequencing and Intelligent Computing.

● Global Resonance (United Kingdom) - Bringing real-time data from end-to-end chain directly into business systems.

● FarmCloud (Portugal) - Allows plug & play integration with climate and feeding controllers from a wide range of manufacturers

● Terra NutriTECH (Ireland) - Precise feeding supplements into the water systems on farms reducing labour and improving returns.

● FOLIUM (United Kingdom): Removal of feed bacteria via CRISPR..

● InTouch (Ireland) - Online feed management solution for dairy farmers

The accelerator culminates with the start-ups pitching to more than 4,000 attendees and some of the premier global thought-leaders in agriculture on the main stage of ONE: The Alltech Ideas Conference in May 2019 in Kentucky, USA.

About Alltech

Alltech is a family-owned company, which allows us to adapt quickly to emerging customer needs and to stay focused on advanced innovation. Headquartered just outside of Lexington, Kentucky, USA, Alltech has a strong presence in all regions of the world.

Founded in 1980 by Irish entrepreneur and scientist Dr. Pearse Lyons, Alltech discovers and delivers solutions for the sustainable nutrition of plants, animals and people. With expertise in yeast fermentation, solid state fermentation and the science of nutrigenomics, Alltech is a leading producer and processor of yeast additives, organic trace minerals, feed ingredients, premix and feed. Their guiding ACE principle seeks to develop solutions that are safe for the Animal, Consumer and the Environment. They have more than 6,000 talented team members worldwide.

About Dogpatch Labs

Dogpatch Labs is one of Europe’s leading tech community hubs fostering entrepreneurship for start-ups, facilitating technology innovation for all sizes of companies and nurturing transformative social enterprises.

Located in the historic CHQ building in the heart of the Dublin Docklands, it is home to over 80 start-ups and over 350 members from 30+ countries. It supports the start-up community by providing a unique space to grow and hosting regular events to share knowledge, form connections and spark collaborative innovation. Acknowledged as a world-class entrepreneurial hub catalysing the ecosystem in Ireland, Dogpatch Labs was awarded the Global Citizenship Award in 2017 and the Diversity & Inclusion Award in 2018 by Google for Start-ups.

Alumni include many of Ireland’s fastest growing tech companies including Irish tech unicorn ‘Intercom’ and provides the global headquarters for CoderDojo, the volunteer-led movement of free computer programming clubs. Dogpatch actively supports social technology initiatives such as like CoderDojo, ChangeX, HackAccess, PyLadies, Social Innovation Fund and others.

About TERRA NutriTECH:

Terra NutriTECH is an award winning Agtech company specialising in the area of smart liquid supplementation for all species of livestock through the water system on farms.

Based in South County Kildare, the company was founded by brothers Padraig and Tom Hennessy who identified a niche gap in the industry. They now employ 15 staff, having grown rapidly from just four in 2016.

In October 2018, they opened a new office space which can facilitate up to 25 team members. The new building provides space for back office, enhanced management and technical team growth and it will be officially opened by Phil Hogan, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development on Friday, December 7th.

2018 has seen Terra NutriTECH reach a 5% penetration within the Irish Dairy mineral market and the company now has a multimillion-euro level of turnover. A number of initiatives which will lead to a significant boost in employment over the course of 2019/2020 are underway and they anticipate to be providing 40 jobs by 2021.

Terra NutriTECH is a local company with world leading technology and global ambition. The company is currently engaged in negotiations with leading nutrition and supplement companies in the USA, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany and France and are about to sign distribution agreements in three territories.

The technology developed by Terra NutriTECH puts the farmers who use it at the forefront of precision agriculture resulting in more efficient and profitable farms, water conservation on farm and the elimination of waste through accuracy.