Iowa State University

What Iowa State University does

Iowa State University is a public flagship land-grant and space-grant research university founded in 1858 and located in Ames, Iowa, serving over 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students through more than 100 majors, minors, and certificates across eight colleges. The university delivers education via residential on-campus instruction, online and distance programs, and extension services that operate across all 99 Iowa counties, while generating revenue from a diversified base including tuition and fees, state appropriations, federal and industry research grants, auxiliary enterprises (housing, dining, bookstore, health services), and athletics. Big 12 Conference membership and a high-visibility Cyclones athletics brand — anchored by five consecutive NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances and the nation's No. 1 Class of 2027 recruiting class per 247Sports — drive brand-led enrollment marketing.

The university's research portfolio spans AI, robotics, agricultural technology, veterinary diagnostics, biomanufacturing, renewable energy, and space biology. Notable proprietary platforms include the 'rulebooks' framework for hierarchical autonomous-robot decision-making published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics in collaboration with ETH Zürich, an AI-powered livestock vaccine mutation-prediction platform leveraging Iowa State's animal health data, the SmartChip qPCR diagnostic device processing 5,000+ samples per plate at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, the Continuous Taylor Vortex Fermentor-Extractor-Separator biomanufacturing device funded by BioMADE, and a multi-year agrivoltaics research platform on a 1.3-MW Alliant Energy solar farm. The Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, ranked No. 9 nationally by Princeton Review for undergraduate entrepreneurship, anchors a commercializable innovation pipeline.

Iowa State's go-to-market is hybrid: a sales-led enrollment motion using campus visits, the Cyclone Tailgate Tour across 10 Iowa locations, and NCAA athletics visibility, combined with a community-led research motion driven by faculty collaborations with USDA, NASA, USGS, BioMADE, the Iowa Soybean Association, and the Walton Family Foundation. Enterprise infrastructure has been modernized through a multi-year transition from legacy mainframes (retired June 2025) to Workday, with Canvas LMS, Microsoft Teams, and ServiceNow-based IT service management as supporting systems.

Name

Iowa State University

Legal name

Iowa State University of Science and Technology

Website

https://iastate.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1858

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

Iowa State University is a public land-grant and space-grant research university founded in 1858 in Ames, Iowa, serving 29,000+ students across eight colleges with research strengths in agriculture, veterinary medicine, robotics, AI, and biomanufacturing, supported by Big 12 Conference athletics.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Land-Grant Public Research Universities (EDAHAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Public Research Universities with Engineering/Polytechnic Emphasis (EDAHAAAD)

Keywords

• Higher education services
• Undergraduate degree programs
• Graduate research programs
• Agricultural extension services
• Veterinary medical services

Headquarters

HQ city

Ames

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Tuition and Fees: Iowa State University generates primary revenue from undergraduate and graduate tuition and fees, with rates varying by residency status (in-state vs. out-of-state) and academic program. The university publishes tuition and fees publicly through its Office of Student Financial Aid website and University Catalog.
2. State Appropriations and Government Funding: As a public land-grant university governed by the Iowa Board of Regents, Iowa State receives state appropriations that support operations, research, and extension services across all 99 Iowa counties. Additional federal funding flows through USDA programs, research grants, and student financial aid.
3. Athletics Revenue: Iowa State athletics generates revenue through ticket sales, media rights (Big 12 conference television contracts), donor contributions to the ISU Foundation athletics fund, and newly introduced alcohol sales at Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum starting fall 2026, with a portion of proceeds funding alcohol education and student wellness.
4. Research Grants and Sponsored Programs: Iowa State receives significant research funding from federal agencies (USDA, NASA, NSF), industry partners, and foundations. Recent grants include $2.8 million from USDA for agricultural tax training, $1.4 million USDA Rural Development grant for agricultural enterprise support, and $100,000 from Lumina Foundation for gamified career skills platform.
5. Auxiliary Enterprises: Revenue from auxiliary operations including student housing and dining (room and board), the University Bookstore, the Thielen Student Health Center, parking services, and the Memorial Union. These services support the residential campus experience for over 29,000 students.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Iowa State University is a public land-grant and space-grant research university that delivers undergraduate and graduate degree programs across eight colleges, alongside faculty-led research services in agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, and AI/robotics. It also operates NCAA Division I athletics, statewide extension and outreach across all 99 Iowa counties, and clinical veterinary medical services through the Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center.

Product overview

Iowa State University offers a comprehensive portfolio of academic programs across eight colleges, supported by extensive research services spanning agriculture, engineering, veterinary medicine, and technology. The university's product ecosystem includes core academic degree programs (undergraduate and graduate), research infrastructure with specialized facilities like the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, student support services including health and wellness and the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, and digital accessibility programs. Research initiatives encompass agrivoltaics, biomanufacturing, autonomous systems, and AI-powered livestock vaccine development. The institution also provides administrative services through Workday-based enterprise systems and maintains a robust digital accessibility framework ensuring WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all digital properties.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Academic Degree Programs

Quantifiable outcome

• 95% of first-year students participate in at least one learning community
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability11 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Aer LingusminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 June 2026Iowa State University football traveled to Dublin, Ireland for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic at Aviva Stadium, where approximately 285 individuals were part of the ISU travel party. The game resulted in Iowa State beating Kansas State 24-21 in Week 0 of the 2025 season. The university settled a lawsuit with the Iowa Freedom of Information Council to release financial records related to this trip.
• Card IntegrityminorOthers · 15 June 2026Card Integrity, a provider of expense monitoring and cardholder training services, was awarded the 2026 Supplier Strategic Partnership Award by Iowa State University Procurement Services. The company has provided purchasing card Expense Monitoring services across more than 240 university departments since 2018, assisting with the university's cardholder recertification process. This was the second time Card Integrity received this award (previously in 2022).
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 June 2026Iowa State University organized a research workshop with USGS experts to position Iowa's universities as partners in developing a potential hydrogen economy. Companies are drilling exploratory wells and conducting seismic surveys to locate geologic hydrogen thousands of feet below Iowa's surface, with the region identified as promising on the USGS's first national hydrogen prospectivity map. Iowa State collaborates with the Iowa Geological Survey and Iowa Department of Natural Resources to address technical, regulatory, and knowledge gaps.
• Oak View GroupminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 May 2026Oak View Group partnered with Iowa State University for live events, as noted in a Billboard report on the Deals column. Oak View Group is a global venue development and advisory company that specializes in arena and stadium projects and live event programming.
• Big 12 ConferencecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 May 2026The Big 12 Conference holds an equity stake in the Players Era college basketball tournament, an event in which participating teams receive on average at least $1 million in NIL money per the tournament co-founder Seth Berger. Iowa State participates in Big 12 conference athletics competition, with the 2026 season featuring nine first-round NBA Draft picks from the conference, a new record.
• ETH ZürichminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 April 2026Iowa State University researchers Tichakorn Wongpiromsarn and Konstantin Slutsky collaborated with ETH Zürich's Emilio Frazzoli to develop the 'rulebooks' framework for autonomous robot decision-making. The framework was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics and provides a common language for robot control methods to help engineers, regulators, and courts evaluate whether autonomous systems behaved according to stated priorities.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Kansas State University: Kansas State University is a fellow land-grant public research university in the Big 12 Conference, with comparable agricultural, engineering, and veterinary programs and a similar enrollment profile — making it one of ISU's closest structural peers.
• Purdue University: Purdue is a Big Ten land-grant public research university with comparable scale, a top-ranked engineering college, strong agricultural research, and Big Ten athletics — directly comparable in research mission and athletic positioning to Iowa State.
• Michigan State University: Michigan State is a land-grant Big Ten research university with similarly strong veterinary medicine, agriculture, and engineering programs, and large extension services — closely comparable in academic structure and federal research funding profile.
• University of Iowa: The University of Iowa is Iowa's other flagship public research university, governed by the same Iowa Board of Regents, with overlapping research strengths and shared in-state competition for students, faculty, and donors.
• Penn State University: Penn State is a land-grant Big Ten research university with comparable scale, large extension footprint, and similar agriculture/engineering strengths — directly comparable in mission and the destination of ISU's former football head coach.
• University of Wisconsin-Madison: UW-Madison is a Big Ten land-grant public research university with similarly strong agricultural, engineering, and life sciences programs, providing a direct peer benchmark for research output and Big Ten athletics competition.
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities: The University of Minnesota is a Big Ten land-grant public research university with parallel Midwest agricultural research, Big Ten athletics, and extension footprint — directly comparable to Iowa State's regional positioning.
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln: UNL is a Big Ten land-grant research university with strong agricultural and engineering programs and Big Ten athletics, providing a direct regional peer for ISU's Midwest land-grant mission.
• West Virginia University: WVU is a Big 12 public research university with comparable Carnegie classification and athletic conference positioning, providing a direct Big 12 peer benchmark outside the land-grant space.

Broad incumbents

• Ohio State University: Ohio State is the largest US land-grant public research university, with a comprehensive scale and Big Ten positioning that dwarfs ISU — a broader incumbent that competes for faculty, federal grants, and student applications.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/iowastateu
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/isunewsservice
• Facebookfacebook.com/IowaStateU
• Instagraminstagram.com/iowastateu
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/school

Compliance9 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds10 records

Investors7 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Iowa State University