In the late 2010s, observers of Nebraska’s startup and innovation ecosystem started to get antsy. “A couple big companies (had) been built in Nebraska around technology, but there weren't a lot of wins that we could point to in agriculture, which was concerning,” said Brennan Costello, director of The Combine, the Nebraska agtech startup incubator and accelerator.

“We've got a lot of people who understand the industry,” Costello said. “We've got a lot of very talented farmers here. We need to build companies here.”

Fast forward and Nebraska is now squarely on the map for agtech. Six companies with a Nebraska presence, including two homegrown startups, have won 2026 AE50 awards. The awards represent “the best innovations in engineering and technology for agricultural, food, and biological systems.” 

The awards are given by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). Nebraska companies represent almost a fifth of the total 33 winners this year, and include two startups. One or more may go on to win the Davidson Prize, the ASABE’s top innovation award.

“It's not just a design award. It's not just about agriculture. It's that your products are available for market,” said Chad Johnson, CEO and co-founder of the startup Grain Weevil, one of the AE50 award winners.

“Getting recognized for your product is awesome, but getting recognized for your product because people can buy it now, that's an even bigger accomplishment,” Johnson said.

Jackson Stansell, founder and CEO of Sentinel Ag, the other Nebraska startup, feels honored to have won, especially given the ASABE’s vetting for scientific and engineering merit. Sentinel Ag also won an AE50 award last year.

Stansell pointed out that, in a way, Nebraska is also represented across the list of winners. Many of the companies, which span Washington and California to Canada and Georgia, “are doing a significant portion of their innovation work in Nebraska as well,” Stansell said.

“The producers in Nebraska are also very innovative,” he said. “They're early adopters, and they're familiar with precision ag technologies, which I think allows (the state) to be a great test bed and initial commercial operating ground.”

Seeding the ecosystem

Nebraska’s strong showing in the AE50 awards wasn’t built in a day. The state has always had drivers of agriculture innovation, from the University of Nebraska System to decades-old companies like Bish Enterprises — another AE50 award winner.

But somehow, the parts didn’t add up to a thriving agtech industry. About a decade ago, “several of us started digging around to say, ‘What are we missing? What could we be doing better?’” said Ben Williamson, general partner at the Nebraska agtech venture capital fund Grit Road Partners.

That soul-searching led to the creation of The Combine, supported by Invest Nebraska, the nonprofit venture capital organization where Williamson once worked. It also pushed Williamson to co-found Grit Road Partners.

When The Combine started in 2019, it was helping only a handful of startups. Now, it serves around 40, director Costello said. Both Grain Weevil and Sentinel Ag are graduates of The Combine’s programs, along with a breakout group of Nebraska companies that includes Nave Analytics, Marble Technologies and DARO.

“We weren't a part of the ag industry … so we really didn't have a standing baseline of what you should expect,” said Johnson about starting Grain Weevil in 2020. “All I knew was when the time was right, there was always the right support for us here in the state.”

But to Williamson, that effort, while successful, isn’t just about startups. Growing agtech brings together the entire Nebraska agriculture industry, from spinning out university ideas to having established companies and farmers as customers.

“Once there is technology, we need feedback,” Williamson said. “We need beta testers. We need people to adopt that technology.”

An example of that startup feedback loop is highlighted by the 2026 AE50 list: Agriculture conglomerate John Deere won awards for two products that come from Blue River Technology. That startup was co-founded by a Nebraskan and acquired by Deere in 2017.

Having Nebraska’s agtech innovation recognized by the AE50 awards “is long overdue and well deserved,” said Phil Erdman, director of dealer and government relations for the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association (INEDA).

“To have not just companies on their own get recognized, (but also) have companies acquired and be recognized — and to be the genesis of a next-generation solution, maybe for an existing manufacturer — is also a part of this,” he said. “You have to fully give credit to the work that's been done by these founders and these companies.”

A Grain Weevil robot being tested against frozen sand at the company’s La Vista headquarters.
A Grain Weevil robot being tested against frozen sand at the company’s La Vista headquarters. Photo by Lev Gringauz/Silicon Prairie News

Sustaining growth

For all the success so far, founders and advocates stressed that Nebraska is only at the beginning of its agtech journey. 

“We have proof of concept that we're learning how to nurture and support and grow startups,” said Nancy Williams, co-founder and former CEO at No More Empty Pots who now consults with agtech and other businesses with Block 27 Consulting. “But we need to widen the funnel so that we can include more people with ideas around food.”

Keeping the momentum means further investment, including through startup support programs like the state’s Business Innovation Act. The BIA has had a rocky year, with concern that the program may be cut or reduced.

“We're kind of at a fork in the road with the Business Innovation Act,” said Grain Weevil’s Johnson. The program “is a good part of the reason why we're here, and I think that we have a real chance to grow this and keep the momentum going.”

For Stansell at Sentinel Ag, doing more to leverage the University of Nebraska System is “critical to the next generation of ag technologies.” He pointed to efforts for a more coordinated innovation test farm by the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center to work with companies.

But there still isn’t a critical mass of business support for agtech in Nebraska, Williams said. She pointed to the need for more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in schools, including for younger age groups.

“This life’s work … it starts a lot earlier than we give credit for it, and I think the acknowledgment of that would encourage us to spend more time inviting and nurturing kids in that third and fourth grade timeframe,” Williams said, “that if they have an interest in agriculture and natural resources, that there is a place for them.”

Nebraska also needs to “find the courage and the funds to invest in those ideas when folks may not have everything proven,” she said. Williams pointed to the state’s Midwestern risk-averse investment culture as holding back business creation and innovation.

In the bigger picture, as Grit Road Partner’s Williamson sees it, Nebraska is primed for a generational opportunity. Traditional venture capital and innovation hubs may be on the coasts of the U.S., but they’re not positioned with the locations or understanding needed to innovate in the physical world instead of with just software.

“To be successful in agtech, you not only ought to be proximate to agriculture geographically, but you also ought to understand those nuances,” Williamson said. “Those traditional venture hubs and innovation ecosystems are neither of those things.”

But Nebraska, and the Midwest more broadly, have the building blocks “to literally be the best in the world in terms of agtech innovation,” he said. “Agriculture is going to change more in the next five years than it's changed in the last 50.”

Silicon Prairie News is the leading independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on covering stories about innovation and entrepreneurship in Nebraska.