Eutrobac Expands Reach Through ASI Acquisition
What started as a research idea inspired by environmental issues on a family farm has grown into Eutrobac, a New York-based agricultural technology startup acquired by Agriment Services, Inc. (ASI) in April.
As a participant in Rev: Ithaca Startup Works’ Protofacturing and Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator programs in 2024 and 2025 respectively, Eutrobac developed the company’s NutriFilter™ technology, which helps livestock operations manage nitrogen pollution and prevent costly mineral buildup in waste systems.
For co-founder Ellie Sangree, the idea behind the technology began years earlier.
“I grew up on a farm and was acutely aware of the environmental issues that come from farming,” Sangree said. “Farming is one of the most significant ways humans impact the environment.”
While studying environmental science in college, Sangree began researching ways to remediate polluted water systems and discovered a gap in existing nitrogen removal methods. After approaching a professor for lab space and mentorship, she began testing a biological filtration system that eventually became the foundation for NutriFilter™.
“Lo and behold, I invented this technology, tested it in a series of experiments, and it ended up working really well,” Sangree said.
After joining the company, co-founder Jesse Wexler focused on commercializing the technology and identifying where it could have the greatest impact. Through participation in the American Farm Bureau I-Corps conference course in 2024, and the National I-Corps program in 2025, the team conducted customer discovery interviews and held conversations with hundreds of farmers, which led the team to realize the technology’s strongest use case was within livestock agriculture, particularly swine operations.
From there, the company shifted its focus toward engineering a scalable product that could meet industry needs. Wexler credits Rev’s accelerator programs with helping to bridge the gap between concept and commercialization.
“The obvious next step was to engineer the product to fit what those customers needed, and that’s what Rev does,” he said.
Through Rev’s Protofacturing and Manufacturing Hardware Accelerator programs, Eutrobac refined its product design, conducted pilot testing across upstate New York, and gathered the technical data needed to continue scaling the company. Along the way, the startup also won the New York Business Plan Competition and raised a $160,000 pre-seed funding round backed by New York state investors and angel funding.
ASI was drawn not only to the technology itself, but also to the team behind it. As part of the acquisition, Sangree will continue supporting development efforts in a consulting role while completing her PhD, and Wexler has joined ASI full time as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
The founders say the acquisition represents both a business milestone and proof of what startup support systems can make possible for early-stage hard tech companies.
“Without what Rev does, what Cornell does with the I-Corps program, and what the New York startup ecosystem does, we wouldn’t have been able to scale properly,” Wexler said.
Looking back on the company’s journey, the founders describe the experience as a rapid progression from invention to commercialization. Eutrobac’s acquisition highlights the growing impact of hard tech and manufacturing-focused startups emerging from upstate New York and reflects the role accelerator programming can play in helping early-stage companies scale innovative technologies into commercial markets.