Corporate partners for the 2017 class include Sprint, Pinsight Media and the Dairy Farmers of America
KANSAS CITY, MO. – June 27, 2017 – After three months of strategic meetings with their corporate sponsors, mentor meetings, pitch practicing and business development sessions, seven startup companies will present their ideas today at the 2017 Sprint Accelerator Demo Day in the J.C. Nichols Auditorium at the National World War 1 Museum in Kansas City.
The 2017 program began on April 3 with a new format for the fourth class at the Sprint Accelerator facility in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City. This year, the program brought in corporate partners with specific strategic business needs and recruited startups with the vision to help address those needs. The corporate partners for 2017 are Sprint, Pinsight Media and the Dairy Farmers of America. Together, the corporate partners and the startups in the program hope to bring innovations to market that will be transformational in two categories – digital and agricultural businesses.
“We made some big changes to our program for the fourth year to give participants even more access to experts than in the past,” said Doug Dresslaer, managing director of the Sprint Accelerator. “The goals and technologies of the startup companies in both verticals are very similar, and the corporate sponsors will bring more resources to the table to help these entrepreneurs grow. We expect the collaborations to be incredibly productive for both the startups and the corporations.”
“The ag tech teams for this year’s Accelerator have brought forth thought-provoking and game-changing ideas for the dairy industry,” said Kevin Strathman, senior vice president of finance for Dairy Farmers of America. “We have been so impressed with the program and process that we’re thrilled to announce that DFA is committing to sponsoring the ag tech segment for the 2018 Sprint Accelerator as well as a new segment focused on dairy products. With this new addition, our partnership with Sprint truly represents every facet of DFA’s business and our commitment to innovation from farm to table.”
Doors open for the Sprint Accelerator Demo Day at 9:00 a.m. Central Time, with presentations running from 9:30 a.m to 11:00 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended by visiting the following event site.
The 2017 Sprint Accelerator Class
| Company | City | Description | Vertical |
| AgVoice | Atlanta, GA | AgVoice is a mobile voice-interaction service designed for food and agriculture professionals to capture insights on the go. | AgTech |
| Centiment | New York, NY | Centiment is an Advertising Platform powered by second-generation artificial intelligence (AI) that analyzes emotion, going beyond the constraints of current sentiment analysis. | Digital |
| DART Technologies | New York, NY | A digital product studio at the intersection of new media (x) mobility, DART Technologies builds location-based solutions for modern transit and urban development. | Digital |
| HerdDogg | Longmont, CO | HerdDogg builds state-of-the-art smart ear tags and readers for livestock ID and health monitoring. | AgTech |
| My Dairy Dashboard | Frisco, TX | My Dairy Dashboard connects your data to simplify your dairy decisions through a visual dashboard of aggregated herd, feed, milk, and weather data. | AgTech |
| Oodles Rewards | Austin, TX | Customer Loyalty That Connects Brands & Retailers With Local Shoppers | Digital |
| TradeLanes | Miami, FL | TradeLanes digitizes and automates the supply chain for shippers, merchants, and traders. | AgTech |
About Sprint and its Support for Entrepreneurship:
Sprint has a strong history of working with startups in Silicon Valley, Kansas City and around the globe, helping young companies navigate the corporate world and build momentum behind their new businesses. Sprint is committed to supporting the entrepreneurial movement across the country, delivering new business opportunities, and spurring the startup spirit within the company. In 2014, Sprint opened the award-winning Sprint Accelerator in Kansas City – home of the Corporate Accelerator. The accelerator space is used to deliver year-round programming, including mentor engagement, STEM programs, entrepreneurial community collaboration, and community coworking space.
About Sprint:
Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 59.7 million connections as of March 31, 2017 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the past five years. You can learn more and visit Sprint atwww.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
About Dairy Farmers of America:
Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) is a national dairy marketing cooperative that serves and is owned by more than 14,000 members on more than 8,000 farms in 48 states. DFA is committed to providing value to its farmer-owners through marketing members’ milk, providing services and resources on the farm and investing in plants and brands such as Borden® Cheese, Plugrá® Butter, and Kemps® that connect family farms to family tables.
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