4 tech takeaways from three Iowa agriculture startups America’s Cultivation Corridor, which develops and markets Iowa’s agricultural and bioscience economy, recently hosted a virtual roundtable with three Iowa-based agricultural startups called Startup Success Stories. The panel featured three speakers: Justin Van Wert, chief operating officer of Distynct, which enables remote monitoring of rural swine production barns by first providing dependable internet connectivity to the barn. Jason Cope, founder and chief intellectual property officer of PowerPollen, which has engineered new technologies that improve seed production and increase agricultural productivity by enabling more effective cross-pollination. Craig Rupp, CEO and founder of Sabanto, a company that creates retrofit kits that turn that tractor into an autonomous tractor. The panel was moderated by Billi Hunt, executive director of America’s Cultivation Corridor. Read more Originally published by the Business Record's Innovation Iowa in October 2025. Back