Land wealth transfer, carbon technology for craft breweries, farm managing shellfish and seaweed, reducing waste and maximizing animal carcass value.

These were themes at the Founders Red Carpet Premiere, the title of Monday night’s HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator Showcase, powered by gener8tor, that marked the end of the fifth and final cohort and second fund.

After 12 weeks of working to impact the AgTech industry in North Alabama, four startups were feted with a “movie premiere” in the Atrium at the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology. The ‘movie’ was a short video featuring the four founders discussing their companies.

However, the project’s managing director referred to a popular TV investment show instead of the silver screen when making a comparison.

“This is our showcase event,’’ Chris Udall told the Huntsville Business Journal. “We brought four companies from around the world to Huntsville and the HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology to accelerate their growth. We operate similarly to Shark Tank. We invest $100,000 into each one, and we introduce them to some of the customers, mentors, investors.’’

Founders lived in Huntsville for three months, paying rent and engaging with the community.

“This particular group, we organized an agricultural trade mission to the United Kingdom,’’ Udall said. “We got new customers in that country, in that region, as well as built the bridge for their startups to move to Huntsville and accelerate their growth in the AgTech space.’’

The companies in this cohort are Downland, Ecobrew, Oceanfarmr and Tylmen Tech.

“We’ve got a company from Australia (Oceanfarmr),’’ Udall said. “We’ve got one with a co-founder from India (Tylmen). There’s one from Texas (Downland) and another one the founder is from New York (Ecobrew).’’

HudsonAlpha has accelerated 25 companies in the past three years, and Udall claims that “40 percent of our portfolio either gets significant customers in Alabama or relocates their business to Alabama.’’

Meet the 2025 Spring Cohort:

Downland

Helps landowners navigate the Great Wealth Transfer by creating succession plans to pass agricultural land down to the next generation. Downland is developing an AI-driven estate planning and land-matching platform that ensures farmland stays in production while honoring family legacies.

For those without an heir, Downland also supports and matches farmers looking to pass down these assets. Downland has generated $50K in revenue, signed 17 landowner letters of intent, and built a waitlist of over 200 aspiring land stewards.

Founder & CEO: Jessi Roesch | jessi@godownland.com | https://godownland.com

Ecobrew

Captures and reclaims carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the brewing process, turning a major cost and environmental liability into a source of operational savings for craft breweries. Breweries use Ecobrew’s proprietary plug-in carbon capture system to become self-sufficient, save thousands, and reduce emissions by reusing the CO₂ they already produce from the brewing process.

Ecobrew has signed 4 letters of intent, identified 2 pilot sites, and attracted $190K in funding, including $137K non-dilutive from Amazon, Intel at ASU Innovation Open, and University of Alabama’s Crimson Accelerator & Aldag Prize.

Founder & CEO: Brian Henderson | brian@ecobrewco.com | https://ecobrewco.com

Oceanfarmr

Provides farm management software and tech-enabled farm financing to systemize and scale shellfish and seaweed operations. Oceanfarmr’s SaaS platform has 92 active software subscriptions and an annualized revenue of $145K.

To date, Oceanfarmr has deployed over $500K in farm finance, with a pipeline of more than $50 million in ocean farming finance inquiries.

Co-Founder and CEO: Ewan McAsh | ewan@oceanfarmr.com | https://oceanfarmr.com

Tylmen Tech

Uses stationary cameras to instantly scan livestock postmortem, capturing precise data on fat distribution, yield, and cutability. This real-time insight is designed to help meat packers reduce waste and maximize carcass value, addressing a $5.7 billion loss in the U.S. beef industry.

Tylmen Tech’s system is built to operate on high-speed assembly lines across all meat-packing facilities, with support for both cows and pigs and flexible cloud or on-site processing.

Co-Founder and CEO: Lloyd Yates | lloyd@tylmen.com | https://tylmen.com

The team at gener8tor and the nonprofit HudsonAlpha seek to help bring economic diversity and job growth to North Alabama. The HudsonAlpha AgTech Accelerator is supported by the Innovate Alabama Tax Credit Program through Innovate Alabama.

Udall said the experience allows the founders to make “lifelong friends in this town.’’

“They have business supporters, they have board advisors from the city,’’ he added. “They hire professional services from this town. And then our investors who invest in the fund are predominantly from Alabama as well. So when they go off and have their big exit and their big win, that money’s going to come back here.’’