Ag Startup Engine
Ag Startup Engine is an Ames, Iowa pre-seed fund and accelerator for Midwest agtech founders. It writes a startup's first check, then opens its network of farmers and investors. As of March 2026 it has closed its third fund, $7 million, and backed one water company tracked by (don't) Waste Water, the algae-powered wastewater treater Gross-Wen Technologies, across two deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Ag Startup Engine closed its third fund in March 2026, a $7 million pool for pre-seed agtech, and had already written checks into six companies before the announcement. The fund was born in 2016 inside Iowa State University's agricultural-entrepreneurship program, where economics professor Kevin Kimle wanted a way to get Midwest founders their very first dollars without packing them off to a coast. Pre-seed simply means the earliest outside money a company takes, before it has much to show beyond a prototype and a conviction.
Ag Startup Engine backs the unglamorous machinery of farming: animal health, robotics, precision agriculture, livestock software, the occasional sustainability play. It writes a small first check, usually $25,000 to $100,000, and then does the thing a coastal fund cannot, walking the founder into a network of Iowa farmers, operators and follow-on investors who decide fast whether a product actually holds up in a field. By its 2024 annual report the portfolio had grown to roughly 40 companies.
Ag Startup Engine reaches water the way Iowa does, through the soil and the wastewater lagoon. Its one water company in the (don't) Waste Water database is Gross-Wen Technologies, another Iowa State spinout, which grows algae on slow-turning vertical belts that eat the nitrogen and phosphorus out of municipal wastewater and leave cleaner water behind. It is water treatment dressed up as an algae farm, and a tidy illustration of how an agtech fund ends up owning a slice of the water problem.
Ag Startup Engine is, for a newcomer, a useful lesson in where water money hides. You will not find it on a water fund's masthead; you find it inside a Midwest agtech portfolio, in the one wastewater startup that came up through the same land-grant research pipeline as the corn. With a fresh fund closed and a partner now driving its deal flow, the place to watch is that farm-adjacent edge, where the next water bet is most likely to arrive dressed as agriculture.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Ag Startup Engine invest in?
- Ag Startup Engine invests in pre-seed and early-seed agricultural technology startups across the Midwest, spanning animal health, robotics, precision agriculture, livestock software and sustainability. It writes a startup's first small check and adds a network of farmers and follow-on investors. Its water exposure is narrow, surfacing through farm-adjacent ventures like algae-based wastewater treatment.
- Who runs Ag Startup Engine?
- Ag Startup Engine is led by executive director and co-founder Joel Harris, alongside co-founder Kevin Kimle, the Iowa State University professor who started it in 2016, co-director Colin Hurd, and venture partner Mikayla Mooney, who built and leads its third fund. The team is small and deeply Iowa-rooted.
- Where is Ag Startup Engine based?
- Ag Startup Engine is based in Ames, Iowa, at the Iowa State University Research Park, where it grew out of the university's agricultural-entrepreneurship program. It invests primarily in Midwest founders, leaning on a regional network of farmers, operators and angel investors to pressure-test whether a young agtech product works in practice.
- How big is Ag Startup Engine's fund?
- Ag Startup Engine closed its third fund at $7 million in March 2026, having already backed six companies through it, and its overall portfolio reached about 40 startups by its 2024 annual report. It writes small initial checks, roughly $25,000 to $100,000, rather than leading large priced rounds.
- What water companies has Ag Startup Engine backed?
- Ag Startup Engine has backed one water-relevant company tracked by (don't) Waste Water: Gross-Wen Technologies, an Iowa State spinout whose revolving algal-biofilm system strips nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewater. Across two deals, that single bet earns Ag Startup Engine an Occasional water-commitment rating, reflecting an agtech fund that touches water selectively.