In celebration for more and more kind-hearted individuals and businesses who support the Iowa Startup Ecosystem and continuously help it thrive, Clay & Milk announced the StartUp Iowa Awards. This year’s awards are as follows: Iowa StartUp of the Year; Investor of the Year; Accelerator of the Year; Entrepreneurial Support Organization of the Year; and Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Nominations for the awards was closed last January 12, 2021 at exactly 11:59PM and all the official finalists were announced and recognized on January 15, 2021. The announcement of awardees will be done on the last week of January. There will also be a $15 submission fee that will be used solely for the support of Clay & Milk.

With this, we are happy to announce that Ag Ventures Alliance has made it to the list of finalists along with Ag StartUp Engine, Franklin Codel, ISA Ventures, and Next Level Ventures, for the Investor of the Year award. This particular award recognizes an investment firm or angel investor who brings capital plus outstanding connections, advice, and attention to Iowa StartUp companies. Moreover, this award category recognizes all types of investors who bet on Iowa companies and serve as critical mentors and connectors. All the investors that made an investment in at least one (1) Iowa-based company during the calendar year 2020 were eligible to be voted for this award category.

As has been said by our Executive Director, Spencer Stensrude, “You can only be a great investor with a great team and great founders. It is an honor to be able to support founders tackling big problems in agriculture”. We are happy to have made it as a finalist for this award as we continuously make sure that our organization’s primary goal is to impact growth and increase farm profitability.