Yield Lab Institute To Lead the H.A.R.V.E.S.T Accelerator With Same Successful Model
The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) is known for its “secret sauce”: equal parts technical assistance, ecosystem support, and nondilutive funding. On Sept. 10, 2025, IN2 shared that recipe with the Yield Lab Institute (YLI) to launch its new beginnings as Harnessing Agricultural Research and Venture Ecosystems for Sustainable Technology (H.A.R.V.E.S.T) AgTech.
Since 2019, IN2 has supported 26 AgTech companies that raised nearly $290 million in follow-on funding, with 5 seeing successful exits. As its work in AgTech lives on, IN2 will return to its roots by focusing on the built environment and infrastructure sectors, areas that align with and leverage the technical expertise at NREL, which coadministers IN2.
“AgTech solutions are of critical importance to our clients,” said Tim Luginsland, Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute sector manager and H.A.R.V.E.S.T. External Advisory Board member. “We look forward to seeing the work to address these challenges continue under YLI.”
Out of mutual interest to continue empowering the AgTech ecosystem, IN2 worked with YLI—a St. Louis-based nonprofit—to chart a path forward. YLI raised their hand, understanding there was something special about the model and trust among partners.
“We are building on an incredible foundation,” said Stephanie Regagnon, YLI’s executive director. “We want to preserve the feeling of inspiration and the desire to serve. Most importantly, we won’t fix what wasn’t broken.”
Celebrating Success, Inaugurating Next Steps
From left: Jay Nargundkar, Terviva; Wendy Mosher, New West Genetics; Pablo Sobron, Impossible Sensing; and NREL moderator Catherine Dolezal host a panel on the power of technical validation. (Photo by Agata Bogucka / NREL)
Startups, partners, and advisors gathered in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado State University (CSU) Spur campus to celebrate IN2’s AgTech cohorts and inaugurate the new program’s future. CSU Spur provided an appropriate backdrop to the gathering with its fusion of agriculture, water, and life science research facilities and civic involvement.
The closeout and celebration launch featured panels with portfolio companies, which recalled how IN2 uniquely elevated their products via the technical talent at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis.
“Developing markets is essential for any emerging crop,” noted Wendy Mosher, president and CEO of New West Genetics, a leader in industrial hemp seed genetics. “Market access is crucial, and IN2 and NREL connected us with fuel industry experts we couldn’t have reached otherwise. Their insights proved invaluable.”
Pablo Sobron, founder of Impossible Sensing, agreed: The connection to trusted names in industry proved to be a differentiator.
“IN2 gave us the visibility to attract a core group of people. Because Danforth proved the science, it creates that trust with partners,” said Sobron.
Partners Make Everything Possible
A refrain in the room was that IN2’s success owes much to its Channel Partner network, which H.A.R.V.E.S.T. will expand on.
“The ecosystem partners are our connective tissue,” Regagnon remarked, referring to the newly announced partners that will support the incubator going forward. “We want to create bespoke opportunities for investor engagement and make sure startups get critical exposure to industry.”
H.A.R.V.E.S.T. also announced 17 new ecosystem partners, including the first addition of international partners. On the technical validation front, a bicoastal collaboration between the North Carolina State Plant Sciences Initiative and the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources will ensure that startups can build from a blend of technical resources and AgTech environments.
Jillian Bunting, leader of Sustainability Insights at Wells Fargo, speaks about the bank’s excitement for IN2’s next chapter as H.A.R.V.E.S.T. under the Yield Lab Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Agata Bogucka / NREL)
IN2 Continues Strong
With ample thanks to the network of technical, financial, and business experts that made IN2’s AgTech program such a success, the Wells Fargo and NREL team are excited to see YLI succeed in this next chapter.
“We cannot thank the External Advisory Board and the Channel Partners enough,” said Sarah Derdowski, IN2 program manager at NREL. “When we brought AgTech into the IN2 model, we wanted to see if we could make an impact in an area that Wells Fargo has a large portfolio. We delivered that impact, and it’s due to trusting our partners’ and advisors’ knowledge of their market, the technical talent at the Danforth Center, and Wells Fargo’s nondilutive funding that fast-tracked these technologies,” Derdowski said.
IN2’s continued focus on the built environment and infrastructure sectors is in full gear, with its Emerging Tech track supporting startups focused on innovations in advanced materials, energy management, and grid resilience and the concurrent Scalable Tech track that helps corporations and municipalities adopt validated technologies to deliver measurable business impacts.
Visit harvestagtech.org to learn more about H.A.R.V.E.S.T.
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