# Open Prairie

> Open Prairie is a VC fund in Champaign backing Biotechnology and Agriculture. See 36 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Champaign, United States
- Total investments: 36
- Last investment: Jun 2026
- Lead investor: 28%
- Fund size: $81M
- Last fund: Feb 2019
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/open-prairie-ventures
- Website: http://www.openprairie.com

Open Prairie is a private equity fund management company with extensive roots in agriculture and rural America. The Open Prairie team has continually focused on increasing financial access in underserved communities and has managed investment portfolios spanning from venture capital to agriculture.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Open Prairie. Shizune tracks 5 team members at Open Prairie. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/open-prairie?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 8 | 22% |
| Agriculture | 6 | 17% |
| Software | 4 | 11% |
| Health Care | 4 | 11% |
| Sustainability | 3 | 8% |

53 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 11 | 31% |
| Funding Round | 5 | 14% |
| Series B | 4 | 11% |
| Series C | 4 | 11% |
| Seed | 2 | 6% |

9 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 24 | 67% |
| Canada | 1 | 3% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Dennis Beard | Partner & CFO | 3 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dennis-beard |
| Jason Wrone | Vice President | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jason-wrone |
| Jim Schultz | Founder & Chairman | 4 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jim-schultz-2 |
| Pat Morand | President | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pat-morand |
| Sam Hogg | Venture Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sam-hogg |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SWARM | SWARM is an AI-powered operational optimization company that builds decision intelligence software for agrifood and manufacturing. The company focuses on helping organizations improve efficiency and reduce costs by using AI systems that model operational challenges and generate optimized decisions across areas such as supply chain planning,logistics, workforce allocation, pricing, and production management. Its platform is designed around an agent-based architecture that uses intelligent systems to interpret business data, identify inefficiencies, and recommend or execute improved operational plans. Rather than requiring users to build models or write code, SWARM allows organizations to define operational problems in a structured way and then uses AI-driven engines to compute optimal solutions. | $10M | Series A | Jun 10, 2026 |  |
| Market Wagon | Market Wagon powers online farmer's markets, enabling food producers to transact online with local consumers. Its platform delivers e-commerce, inventory control, customer interactions, and last-mile logistics all so that the farmers can spend more time farming. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Nov 20, 2025 |  |
| HerdDogg | HerdDogg is a global herd health and data science platform. It is a two-part system that helps ranchers track health and proximity data from their herd. The company's device gathers the data captured by the ear tags and reports it directly to the rancher via an app or web database. | $6M | Series A | Mar 26, 2024 |  |
| HerdDogg | HerdDogg is a global herd health and data science platform. It is a two-part system that helps ranchers track health and proximity data from their herd. The company's device gathers the data captured by the ear tags and reports it directly to the rancher via an app or web database. | $3.5M | Series A | Oct 06, 2023 |  |
| Vytelle | Vytelle is a company with a deeper purpose and revolutionary technology that helps to advance bovine, deer and buffalo genetics faster by redefining reproduction. | $20M | Series B | Apr 04, 2023 |  |
| IngredientWerks | IngredientWerks is a company operating in stealth. IngredientWerks was founded in 2022 and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts. |  | Seed | Feb 15, 2023 |  |
| LandscapeHub | LandscapeHub is dedicated to streamlining the B2B procurement process in the Landscaping Industry. Buyers and suppliers increase efficiency, expand their networks and gain valuable market knowledge and insights by using LandscapeHub.LandscapeHub is a digital, B2B marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers within a central onlineplatform.LandscapeHub represents quality suppliers across the country, aggregating their available inventory and pricing, empowering buyers with a “one stop shop” buying experience. | $9M | Series A | Feb 10, 2022 |  |
| Vytelle | Vytelle is a company with a deeper purpose and revolutionary technology that helps to advance bovine, deer and buffalo genetics faster by redefining reproduction. | $13.2M | Series A | Sep 28, 2021 |  |
| Comet Biorefining | Comet Biorefining is a leading provider of sustainable high-quality cost-competitive cellulosic glucose technology for applications in renewable biofuels and biochemicals. The company’s proprietary technology allows for the conversion of wood, wheat straw, bagasse, corn stover and other agricultural waste materials into high purity cellulosicglucose syrup. These non-food sources offer lower cost and price stability when compared to food sugar sources such as corn or sugar cane. Demonstrated at 5 dry tons per day scale, Comet is focusing on commercial scale up and development of commercial partnerships with applications in renewables industries. | $22M | Series C | Jul 13, 2021 |  |
| HerdDogg | HerdDogg is a global herd health and data science platform. It is a two-part system that helps ranchers track health and proximity data from their herd. The company's device gathers the data captured by the ear tags and reports it directly to the rancher via an app or web database. | $4M | Series A | Jan 14, 2021 |  |

10 of 36 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Pangaea Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pangaea-ventures) — VC Fund, 8 deals together
- [Serra Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/serra-ventures) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Cultivian Sandbox Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/cultivian-sandbox-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [S2G Investments](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/s2g-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Anterra Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/anterra-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Fulcrum Global Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fulcrum-global-capital) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [SVG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/svg-ventures) — VC Fund
- [SOSV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sosv) — VC Fund
- [Omnivore](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/omnivore-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Agriculture (agtech) Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/agriculture-agtech-investors-united-states)
- [Agriculture (agtech) VC Funds in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/agriculture-agtech-vc-funds-united-states)
- [Agriculture (agtech) Investors in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/agriculture-agtech-investors-united-states)
- [Agriculture (agtech) VC Funds in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/agriculture-agtech-vc-funds-united-states)

## FAQ

### What does Open Prairie invest in?

Open Prairie invests primarily in Biotechnology, Agriculture and Software startups, most often at Series A and Funding Round stage. Most of the 36 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Open Prairie?

Public channels for Open Prairie include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Open Prairie?

The team at Open Prairie includes Dennis Beard (Partner & CFO), Jason Wrone (Vice President) and Jim Schultz (Founder & Chairman). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co