Applications for Oklahoma Farm Bureau’s 2025 Oklahoma Grassroots Rural & Ag Business Accelerators program year are now open until April 4 for rural Oklahoma and agricultural innovators looking to develop their enterprises and deepen their business understanding.
The program offers two distinct pipelines for rural Oklahoma innovators who are looking to develop their ideas, build their entrepreneurial skills and hone their pitches with help from Oklahoma’s world-class business development ecosystem.
The Activate Oklahoma rural innovation pipeline provides resources and assistance for innovative rural Oklahoma businesses that have an innovation or product that will bring economic opportunities to rural Oklahoma.
The AgCelerate Oklahoma agricultural innovation pipeline is for innovators who have innovations and technologies with an on-farm or production agriculture application that will help diversify opportunities for farmers.
Each pipeline provides innovators with multiple training sessions that begin in April and run through September. The trainings include pipeline-specific boot camps that connect entrepreneurs with Oklahoma-focused business resources and curriculum to grow and expand their businesses. Additional training will follow the initial boot camps to provide a well-rounded experience for innovators.
Graduates of both Activate Oklahoma and AgCelerate Oklahoma will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas for an opportunity to receive equity investment from the program’s partnering organizations. Both pipelines also prepare innovators for additional funding opportunities such as grants, loans and creative funding mechanisms.
Applications for both the Activate and AgCelerate pipelines are available on the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Website at okfarmbureau.org/AcceleratorApp. Chosen applicants will be interviewed as part of the final selection process.
There is no cost to participate in either innovation pipeline, and successful candidates must attend all provided training sessions.
Successful applicants must have significant business operations in Oklahoma and be located in a community with a population of 50,000 or less.
The Oklahoma Grassroots Rural & Ag Business Accelerators program is a collaborative rural development effort between Oklahoma Farm Bureau and state and national partners. The program creates economic opportunities for rural Oklahomans and supports Oklahoma agriculture through innovation and business development for rural entrepreneurs.
Partner organizations include AgLaunch Initiative, Oklahoma CareerTech, Oklahoma SBDC, Oklahoma i2E, Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology, Generation Food Rural Partners Fund, Oklahoma State University’s Food and Agricultural Products Center, Noble Research Institute and Cortado Ventures.
