Kalamazoo’s Vestaron touted in NPR broadcast on venture capital

Agriculture businesses and venture capitalists increasingly are finding common ground to work together, reports Harvest Public Media.

Ag-upstarts are now pitching venture capitalists to plant cash in technologies that could revolutionize how farmers produce, move and sell what they grow, the radio show reports. Kalamazoo’s Vestaron is one of the companies that is encouraging venture capitalist Jim Schultz, founder and managing partner of Open Prairie Ventures, to consider a fund just for agriculture.

Excerpt:

That may seem a pie-in-the-sky notion, but companies like Kalamazoo Mich.- based Vestaron Corp. have Schultz feeling optimistic.

Vestaron makes a pesticide based on the venom of the Australian Blue Mountain Funnel-Web spider.

“The reality is that more firms will pick up the phone and talk to an agricultural company today than they would have back in 2005, 2006,” said John McIntyre, chief executive officer of Vestaron, which has raised more than $7 million from a confluence of funding streams including venture capital from Open Prairie.

To find out more, read the rest of the story.

Source: Harvest Public Media