Alure LLC

Post-MN Cup updates! Early in August 2024, Alure LLC was announced as the student division winner in the Minnesota Cup, receiving $25,000! Last week, our team attended the 2024 Minnesota Cup grand finale to pitch for the grand-prize review board as well as showcase our solution at our own booth. We thank you all for your support. It was moving to hear the number of growers who have faced Japanese Beetles in their own backyards in MN and are looking forward to trying new solutions. Additionally within the last week, we are excited to announce Alure as one of several LaunchMN business grant recipients this summer, funded by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). With this support, we aim to develop a small batch production that will be available for Minnesota growers in the next summer. The list of grant recipients can be found here - in total, MN DEED awarded nearly $583,000 to 21 innovative Minnesota startups:?https://lnkd.in/gVkGTFUK This winter, our team will be active on our newsletter. We'll be launching a blog as well as a revamped website - sharing insights about Japanese Beetles, our visions for the future, as well as tips and tricks to manage these and similar garden pests in the upcoming summers. Stay tuned if you’re interested by signing up for our newsletter at alurellc.com, where we will also announce updates of our product next summer. Thank you all for a very successful year so far!

We are thrilled to share that Alure has now reached the finalist stage of the 2024 Minnesota Cup student division! We will be competing as one of the 3? finalist student teams for an opportunity to fund our contact-based device to passively bait and kill Japanese Beetles, a generalist pest that hits close to home for MN gardeners. Japanese Beetles are an invasive insect that target rosebushes, orchards, vineyards, and over 300 other plants grown by growers throughout the summer, causing leaf damage and defoliation that impacts aesthetics, yield, and the long-term health of perennial plants. The full list of MN Cup finalists can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gCM8ydNx For more information about our progress - visit our site at alurellc.com

Our team is excited to share that Alure LLC has reached the semifinalist stage in the 2024 Minnesota Cup student division! We will be competing among 10 semifinalist teams for an opportunity at funding for our venture. The Minnesota Cup is an annual competition that reaches emerging entrepreneurs throughout the state and connects them with mentorship and resources to accelerate the development of their ventures. Since 2005, MN Cup has given away $5.4 Million in seed capital, taking no equity in exchange. Alumni companies have gone on to raise over $1.1 Billion. We are especially excited to be competing this summer as we work to eliminate Japanese Beetles with our environmentally friendly bait and kill surface strategy! For more information, check out Minnesota Cup here. https://lnkd.in/gDXsA5V

Post E-Fest Updates! Alure LLC recently competed in the #eFest2024 at the University of St. Thomas - Schulze School of Entrepreneurship in late-April. Here is how it went, and where we plan to go this summer! Our team members were on the 1st and 2nd place teams for the 2nd day innovation challenge, and the runner-up in our room for the Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge on the final day. Together, Alure took home north of $8,000 in winnings to jump-start our pilot plans for the summer! Most recently, our work in Japanese Beetle pest management has been highlighted on the Brownfield Ag News podcast, connecting greater Minnesota and the Midwest to news in agriculture! Special thanks to Mark Dorenkamp for reporting on our story - check it out at the link below. We are tremendously grateful to both e-Fest? - Home of The Schulze Entrepreneurship Challenge and Smart Connections PR for facilitating this great placement, as well as the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation for making the e-Fest competition possible. Follow along to see what’s next - exciting updates to come soon! https://lnkd.in/g7hsxrFn

Exciting news! Alure LLC has gone on to advance into the E-Fest 2024 competition this upcoming April as a finalist! Finalist teams will be competing for a portion of the $215K in total prize money across 3 days, along with having access to mentorship opportunities and feedback to launch the business idea. We look forward to boosting our progress in tackling this widespread problem as we head into the summer! Stay tuned for more updates! #nomorejapanesebeetles.