HomeProduct Complimentary download St. Louis, Missouri attracts third Israeli agtech company in seven months -Forrest Innovations selects St. Louis for U.S. headquarters

St. Louis, Missouri attracts third Israeli agtech company in seven months -Forrest Innovations selects St. Louis for U.S. headquarters

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Publish time: 5th June, 2015      Source: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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St. Louis, Missouri attracts third Israeli agtech company in seven months -Forrest Innovations selects St. Louis for U.S. headquartersSt. Louis, Missouri attracts third Israeli agtech company in seven months -Forrest Innovations selects St. Louis for U.S. headquarters" title="Share this link on Facebook">St. Louis, Missouri, USAJune 5, 2015BioSTL, the St. Louis organization advancing regionalprosperity by cultivating the bioscience and innovation ecosystem, announced thatIsraeli agtech company Forrest Innovations has selected St. Louis as the location of itsU.S. headquarters. The company’s decision represents the third success in sevenmonths for BioSTL’s initiative targeting Israeli companies for recruitment.Forrest Innovations is an agtech company working at the forefront of technologyto address two major challenges in the outdoor environment: reducing mosquito-carrieddisease and overcoming a bacteria that is threatening the citrus industry’s existence.“St. Louis is renowned for its leadership in plant science and top notch scientificpersonnel, offering us a wonderful opportunity for recruiting highly qualifiedemployees. St. Louis also provides a great platform for promoting innovation andcollaboration. We are very happy to become the latest members of this promisingcommunity,” said Nitzan Paldi, CEO of Forrest Innovations.Israel, frequently referred to as the “Startup Nation,” is one of the largest sourcesof commercially-promising innovation in the world, particularly in agritech, medicaltechnologies, and cyber-security – areas that match nicely with St. Louis’ strengths.BioSTL’s St. Louis-Israel Innovation Connection (SLIIC) initiative capitalizes on thefundamental business need of many Israeli ventures to establish a U.S. presence toaccess markets, capital, networks and corporate partnerships.“Although we anticipated the strengths of our St. Louis ecosystem wouldresonate with Israeli companies, the pace of success has exceeded all expectations,”said Donn Rubin, president and CEO of BioSTL. “It’s not surprising that our earlymomentum has been in agtech, an area where St. Louis shines, with remarkablecorporate and research partners, talent and specialized facilities.”Prior to Forrest Innovations’ decision, Kaiima Bio-Agritech (November) andEvogene (February) each announced establishment of their U.S. base in St. Louis.Building on the momentum, a delegation from St. Louis, including representativesfrom BioSTL, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, KWS, Monsanto, MissouriPartnership and St. Louis Regional Chamber visited Israel last month to amplifySt. Louis’ story and increase awareness of the region as a preferred relocation site.BioSTL’s SLIIC team identifies and screens prospective target companies andstrategically matches these Israeli companies with St. Louis resources, includingpotential corporate and institutional partners, investors, and scientific and businessexpertise that can lead to establishing a company presence in St. Louis.SLIIC takes a collaborative approach to leverage a wide array of assets inSt. Louis’ innovation ecosystem and provide the region a competitive advantage byoffering value to prospective relocation candidates. Forrest Innovations will locate atBRDG Park, a Wexford Science + Technology development on the campus of theDonald Danforth Plant Science Center focused on plant and life science companies. TheMissouri Partnership facilitated Forrest Innovations’ state incentives.“This latest success says a lot about the shared vision and clear purpose withwhich we approach economic development,” said Mike Downing, director of the MissouriDepartment of Economic Development. “By leveraging our strengths and harnessing thecombined resources of the state and local communities, we’re seeing a burgeoningbioscience industry here in St. Louis.”“This economic development win is a testament to the region’s ability to attractnew and exciting bioscience companies, and we are excited to welcome them to St.Louis” said St. Louis Regional Chamber President & CEO Joe Reagan.About BioSTLBioSTL advances St. Louis’ economic vitality by cultivating a strong bioscience andinnovation ecosystem. BioSTL organizes business, university, and philanthropic leadersaround a set of deliberate strategies that capitalize on St. Louis’ strengths in medical andplant sciences. Focus areas include: building and investing in startups through ourventure development arm, BioGenerator; improving access to investment capital;ensuring appropriate physical infrastructure; promoting science- and innovation-friendlypublic policy; fostering a more inclusive entrepreneurial talent pool in the region;attracting the U.S. presence of international companies; and communicating St. Louis’strengths. Please visit www.biostl.org for additional information. Follow BioSTL on twitter@BioSTL.About Forrest InnovationsForrest Innovations is headquartered in Israel, with additional state-of-the-art facilities inBrazil and in California. Forrest leverages its “Nature-treats-Nature™” platform todevelop exciting novel green solutions and initially addresses two major outdoorchallenges facing humanity: 1) To dramatically reduce the burden of disease vectoringmosquitoes, which debilitate millions of people around the world and kill more childrenthan any other cause. 2) To save the Citrus industry from a devastating bacterial disease(‘Citrus Greening’) that is wreaking havoc in the major citrus producing geographies ofthe world and which is literally demolishing the orange juice industry of Florida.Published: June 5, 2015The news item on this page is copyright by the organization where it originatedFair use notice