Agriculture Center of Excellence Client Success Story
Smart Tech for Healthy Birds and Herds: The Future of Animal Biosecurity

Hema Ravindran and Raj Singh live in Columbia, Lancaster County, PA, one of the largest egg-producing counties in the state. It’s a peaceful suburb, and being away from big city chaos helped them build a solution for their farmer neighbors. Both Hema and Raj hold PhDs in Environmental Engineering and worked as full-time scientists, with a dream to translate their science into real-world impact. Hema has 10+ years studying how airborne pathogens affect health, climate, and air quality and Raj has over a decade of industry experience building advanced non-thermal plasma systems to tackle emerging and forever chemicals that harm people and the planet.

“Kara and Martin helped us pressure-test our market strategy, tighten our value prop, and speak our customers’ language. Total game changers.”

The thrill of solving hard problems, the desire for purpose beyond a fixed routine, and the ability to thrive in chaos drove their desire for entrepreneurship. After watching their farmer neighbors lose flocks and livelihoods to airborne pathogens, Hema and Raj knew they had to bring their tech to this market. Traditional fixes weren’t cutting it anymore with avian flu outbreaks and other environmental threats wiping out farms and causing billions in losses. Farmers needed better, more sustainable tools that knock out the real issues—pathogens, dust, and toxic gases, that is where KiposTech could help.

Entering a new field is always a challenge, but one that KiposTech was ready to face. With the help of Pennsylvania SBDC staff members, Hema and Raj have been able to begin the transition of their air purification and sanitization technology from the medical field to animal agriculture. Innovation and new technology adoption within the livestock sector can be difficult to navigate, but KiposTech has worked with countless professionals to pilot test and adopt their patent-pending air sanitization system to fit the needs of confined animal operations, such as poultry and swine facilities, both staples of the Pennsylvania agricultural system.

“Our mentors Kara and Martin were key in shaping our high-end clean tech machine for rugged animal Ag market.”

In August 2024 KiposTech was introduced to the Pennsylvania SBDC Agriculture Center of Excellence after being awarded the Ben Franklin Techcelerator Award the previous year. The Pennsylvania SBDC consultants have prepared Hema and Raj for various innovation grants and competitions bringing practical agricultural knowledge to their product and project proposals.

To date, KiposTech has been awarded;

• Startup302 national business funding competition, first prize winner in Environmental impact category 2025
• Letter of appreciation from the Governor of Delaware for building a solution for chicken producers
• Tesco Agri T Jam 2024 Global Finalist
• SCORE Small Business Achievement Award 2024
• Honored by U.S. Senator Robert Casey Jr.
• Grand Prize for Best Business Idea, WCU, West Chester, 2024
• Tie Women’s Global Pitch Finalist (Philly-PA), 2024
• Sci Inc, accelerator fellows, fall 2024, Innovation Space, DE
• Ben Franklin Techcelerator Winner 2023
• MADV portfolio company

Additionally, the Pennsylvania SBDC has facilitated valuable connections for the KiposTech team as they expand their research and impact in states where agriculture, particularly poultry production, plays a critical economic role. These efforts have included professional introductions to the Pennsylvania Centers for Livestock and Poultry, Beef, and Dairy Excellence, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Most recently, coordination with Delaware Valley University’s Agribusiness Department led to the hiring of a summer intern focused on business operations and market discovery.

As KiposTech looks to commercially launch their product within the livestock sector, the PASBDC has been able to assist in business proposition development, agricultural market research, industry professional connections and referrals, and grant review, all of which have led to KiposTech’s progression to commercialization