2 Ames startups receive $150k in seed money to advance their work

Two start-up companies that are part of the Ag Startup Engine at the Iowa State University Research Park were named to Y Combinator’s winter cohort accelerator program with the companies each receiving $150,000 in seed investment capital, according to an announcement made Tuesday.

The companies, Nebullam and LEAH Laboratories, will also receive mentorship and educational resources through a 90-day program, culminating with a two-day demo in San Francisco.

According to the announcement, it’s the first time two Iowa built and based startups were selected for Y Combinator.

Y Combinator is an accelerator for hard-tech companies that helps other accelerators and startups, said Wes Wierson, founder of LEAH Laboratories, which is working to create immunotherapies to treat dog cancers.

Leah Laboratories and Nebullam were among the 205 startups selected to the Y Combinator winter cohort, and among the approximately 12,000 that applied.

Wierson said the funding and assistance provided by Y Combinator will help his company get into the lab to continue its work.

“This will help us continue to develop our gene pipeline and create and show how these T cells work together to kill dog cancer,” he said.

He said LEAH is “riding the wave of FDA approved CAR T cell thereapy in humans,” which is curing lymphomas and leukemias that are otherwise incurable with chemotherapy.

Wierson said B-cell lymphoma is a naturally occuring, clinically accepted model of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which is curable in people using immunotherapy.

“Our big insight is the fact that we can use the USDA approval process to not only treat and hopefully cure sick dogs, but also innovate on approaches in treating dog cancer to inform human therapies at a fraction of the cost,” he said. “We use gene editing to reprogram immune cells such that they seek out and specifically destroy cancer cells, rather than killing all dividing cells like chemotherapy does.”

Wierson, who’s working with veterinarians at ISU and scientists from the Mayo Clinic, said comparatively speaking, what takes five to 10 years and $500 million to get FDA approval for humans, could take only three years and less than $5 million for USDA approval for use in dogs.

If successful, safety trials could happen in about a year with clinic trials in about two years.

“We hope to be on the market in 2022,” Wierson said.

Nebullam’s work focuses on building ultra local indoor farms that provide produce to grocers and restaurants year round. It is currently operating a 1,400-square-foot indoor farm within the ISU Research Park.

Nebullam, which has gone through the Y Combinator’s Startup School, has received letters of intent from leading Midwest grocers and other distribution partners, according to the announcement.

Founder Clayton Mooney said the Y Combinator community, “is just as open when talking about failure as they are with talking about success.”

“That openness to sharing what doesn’t or didn’t work is healthy and required for growing a technology startup ecosystem,” Mooney said in a statement provided to the Ames Tribune. “I believe Ames has the potential to become a powerful technology startup hub over the coming years, but only if the community reaches the point where it wants to optimize for the upside, while not sweating the downside.”

Mooney said despite the large number of companies involved, Y Combinator creates opportunities for one-on-one time for the companies.

“Our YC Partners have been available day and night, and they’ve hosted personal office hours with us every week,” he said. ” Every time we’ve left an office hour, it’s like we’ve acquired another piece of the puzzle in building a startup. And that piece came straight from someone who has been there and done that, which is incredibly valuable.”

Joel Harris, co-director of the Ag Startup Engine, said recognition of LEAH Laboratories and Nebullam by Y Combinator is “terrific for the companies,” but it’s also “an inspiration for other entrepreneurs about the quality of technology businesses being started here in the Heartland.”

The Ag Startup Engine began 2 1/2 years ago to address gaps that prevented agricultural startups and entrepreneurs from being more successful: early seed-stage investment and organized mentorship from successful entrepreneurs. The aggregate impact of Ag Startup’s portfolio is almost 100 jobs and more than $15 million in additional capital raised for nine startups. The Ag Startup Engine hopes to add six more ag technology startups to its portfolio over the next year.

Read the article at amestrib.com.