Applications for Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s 2024 Oklahoma Grassroots Rural & Ag Business Accelerators program year are now open until March 1 for rural Oklahoma and agricultural innovators looking to develop their enterprises and deepen their business understanding.
The Activate Oklahoma rural innovation pipeline provides resources and assistance for innovative rural Oklahoma businesses that have an innovation or product that will bring economic opportunities to rural Oklahoma.
The newly revamped AgCelerate Oklahoma agricultural innovation pipeline is for innovators who have innovations and technologies with an on-farm or production agriculture application that will help diversify opportunities for farmers. The AgCelerate pipeline prepares innovators to apply for the national AgLaunch365 agricultural business accelerator or participate in Activate Oklahoma.
Each innovation pipeline provides innovators with multiple training sessions that begin in April and May and run through September. The trainings include pipeline-specific boot camps that connect entrepreneurs with Oklahoma-focused business resources and curriculum to grow and expand their businesses. Additional training will follow the initial boot camps to provide a well-rounded experience for innovators.
Graduates of both Activate Oklahoma and AgCelerate Oklahoma will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas for an opportunity to receive equity investment from the program’s partnering organizations. Both pipelines also prepare innovators for additional funding opportunities such as grants, loans and creative funding mechanisms.
Applications for both the Activate and AgCelerate pipelines are available on the Oklahoma Farm Bureau website at okfarmbureau. org/AcceleratorApp.
There is no cost to participate in either innovation pipeline, and successful candidates must attend all provided training sessions.
Successful applicants must have signifi cant business operations in Oklahoma and be located in a community with a population of 50,000 or less.
The Oklahoma Grassroots Rural & Ag Business Accelerators program is a collaborative rural development effort between Oklahoma Farm Bureau and state and national partners. The program creates economic opportunities for rural Oklahomans and supports Oklahoma agriculture through innovation and business development for rural entrepreneurs.
Partner organizations include AgLaunch Initiative, Ag Ventures Alliance, Oklahoma CareerTech, Oklahoma SBDC, Oklahoma i2E, Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology, Oklahoma State University’s Food and Agricultural Products Center, Noble Research Institute and Cortado Ventures.
