German firm to move to Ithaca

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — A German company has “active plans” to move to Ithaca and have a presence at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator in Binghamton beginning this month.

That’s according to a Dec. 19 news release on the Koffman website. 

Corbiota of Germany is working to redefine industrial animal nutrition to improve health and welfare through feeding animals specialized live worms “rich in complex microbiota,” per the release.

It was among six international companies that spent time in Binghamton and surrounding areas between Nov. 12 and 18 for the Soft Landing New York Fall 2023 Customer Discovery and Market Exploration Bootcamp. 

It marked the first time that the group got a chance to meet the mentors they’ve worked with virtually. Those involved also had the chance to consult with New York State and local organizations who can help them establish their businesses in the Southern Tier. 

“The in-person market exploration bootcamp is perhaps the most valuable piece of the soft landing programming. All other program components — the workshops on the U.S. business and market environment, the mentorship coaching, the student research support — are organized online,” Elena Iankova, director of the Soft Landing New York program at the Koffman Incubator, said in the release. “The bootcamp in Binghamton was the first time when the participants met outside of Zoom in person. They were able to form a bond from the very beginning once they met. The bootcamp gave them the opportunity to learn not just from the experts and the mentors, but also by sharing experiences among themselves.”

How that week unfolded

After an inaugural day of customer-discovery workshops and meeting a panel of local economic-development stakeholders on Nov. 13 at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, companies spent the following two days at the Grow-NY Food and Agriculture Summit in Binghamton. 

While in attendance, Soft Landing companies had the opportunity to network with potential funders, programs, and other food and agriculture or agritech companies already making an impact in upstate New York and other places in the U.S. Some even hope to participate in the summit and/or pitch competition next year.

For their final full day of the bootcamp, companies traveled with Koffman Incubator staff and Soft Landing program leaders to Ithaca and Geneva to meet with representatives of Cornell University and the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech. 

For a company like Corbiota, the last day and the connections during the visit were “vital” to the possibility of moving their company to the Southern Tier of New York.

“Logistics and regulations are still challenges for us that we are working on. What really helps us is the connection to Cornell AgriTech,” Alexandra Schneider of Corbiota said in the release. “We are following up with them to discuss how they could support the tests we have to run as soon as the worms arrive in the U.S.”

Many of the participants plan to continue pursuing moving their companies to the U.S. after performing this “valuable” market research and customer discovery through the bootcamp, but Corbiota has “active plans” to move to Ithaca and have a presence at the Koffman Incubator in January.

“The bootcamp was great to connect to potential customers in the region, potential cooperation partners in the region, as well as other companies from foreign countries,” Schneider added in the release. “We want to move to New York and start the U.S. company here… [and] we are happy that we made so many meaningful connections and really had a soft landing within [the] area.”

Other participating companies

Besides Corbiota, the attending companies did their work in clean energy or agritech industries and represented different cohorts of the Soft Landing New York program. 

The firms included Bmate Consulting of Mexico from the fall 2022 cohort. It’s a business management and consulting firm currently focused on the oil and gas industry with plans to transition focus to consult with companies in the clean-energy industry.

In addition, GH Solar of Brazil from the spring 2023 cohort is a solar photovoltaic (PV) company providing PV solar-farm project development to help lower the cost of electric bills.

The companies also included AiroFresh International of Australia from the fall 2023 cohort. It’s an agritech company addressing problems like mold, fungi, bacteria and viruses in agriculture-controlled cold storage and enclosed polluted areas.

In addition, Starz Energies of Tunisia from the fall 2023 cohort is a lithium-ion battery manufacturing company offering a “longer-lasting and cost-effective” battery, while also researching other materials for energy use. 

The firms also included H2 Extra-Here of Italy, which applied to the upcoming spring 2024 cohort. It uses proprietary technology to extract hemp with oil thus offering a cleaner process.

“The journey to Binghamton has been an introduction to the U.S. market and key players in it,” AiroFresh’s team of Jon Taylor, Josh Boundy and Mike Woodrow said in the news release, commenting about the bootcamp. “While the Zoom workshops have been very informative, there is so much value in meeting the key stakeholders face-to-face.”