Inflexion Point Technologies and ALMACO collaborate to commercialize the industry’s first prescriptive, on-planter seed treatment (POP-ST™) solution

Inflexion Point Technologies, LLC (IPT) and ALMACO announced a business relationship that will sustainably increase food productivity and farmer profitability by enabling researchers and growers to increase their use of sustainable biological seed treatments while also more effectively tailoring their treatments to their agronomic zones and growing conditions.

IPT, co-founded by CEO Steve Smith and President Nick Iwig, is an Ag Tech company that has developed the industry’s first prescriptive, on-planter seed treatment (POP-ST™) solution.

“We are excited to collaborate with industry leader ALMACO to commercialize our POP-ST technology. ALMACO’s long history of successful technology offerings in the research market will ensure our POP-ST technology is field tested and farmer approved. By collaborating with ALMACO, we will be positioned to serve the needs of our customers in research and at the farm gate,” said Smith.

Guided by CEO Patrick Clem, ALMACO is a market leader in the seed research equipment industry, developing and commercializing novel technologies in the seed processing, packaging, planting, plant phenotryping, harvesting, and pollination markets over the last several decades.

ALMACO will optimize the final product development phase of IPT’s patent-pending POP-ST technology. ALMACO research planters with POP-ST technology will be available for the Spring 2022 planting season with commercial planter kits available for the Spring 2023 planting season. In exchange for the product optimization, ALMACO will get certain preferred terms in its license to commercialize the POP-ST solution in the research planter market.

“Despite our unprecedented success in the seed research equipment market, we recognized the need to continually adapt to maintain that success.  One way we’ve done so is to actively seek out opportunities to partner with startups bringing game-changing technologies to market. When we learned about IPT’s POP-ST solution, we simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play a critical role in commercializing it. We believe it will significantly improve how seed treatment is done for both our research customers and farmers,” said Clem.

Unleashing a New Class of Sustainable, Biological Seed Treatments

The biological seed treatment market is rapidly expanding with increased desire to sustainably improve per-acre performance on the farm.

“New technology is needed to enable yield-protecting green solutions that also optimize farmer’s return on investment. IPT’s novel POP-ST technology enables a broader spectrum of biological and niche treatments to be directly applied over-the-top of already-treated seed,” Smith explained.

Iwig added, “Our POP-ST technology increases the number of valuable technologies a farmer can apply to seeds compared to current practices. POP-ST is the first on-seed application technology enabling farmers to maintain biological seed treatments in their optimal state until they are deployed real time in field to deliver farmers the most value.”

Seed Treatment—The Next Evolution of the Prescriptive Input Movement

POP-ST enables real-time, precision application delivered directly from the planter to each seed in the most sustainable and flexible method.

“POP-ST is a game changing solution that will, for the first time, allow planters to vary which seed treatments they apply, the combinations and rates at which they apply them, and the locations where they do so based on agronomic zone and other planting conditions,” Smith explained.

“Our solution is designed to be added as an upgrade to existing planters and integrated into the manufacturing process of new planters. Ultimately, our POP-ST offerings create an entirely new category of seed treatment—in-field, real-time prescriptive seed treatments,” said Iwig.

Additional Information

For additional information about IPT and its commitment to bringing game-changing and disruptive innovations to the food and agriculture industry, please visit www.inflexionpointtechnologies.com.

For additional information about ALMACO and its history of bringing key innovations to the seed research plot planter industry, please visit www.almaco.com.