• Australia has built a reputation as a leader in agritech and has cemented international recognition as a global frontrunner in the agtech arena
• The Australia – UK Free Trade Agreement (A-UKFTA) came into effect May 23 and has opened up bilateral trade between the two countries, reducing import tariffs and paving the way for UK Agritech scaleups to land and launch into Australia.
• The Global Incubator Program (GIP): Gateway to Australia is a market internationalisation program for UK agritech scaleups to open up commercial opportunities and de-risk market entry
into Australia.
• Following the success of the 2022 Gateway to Australia program, Farmers2Founders is delivering the second innovation accelerator as part of the 3-year commitment with Innovate UK.
• Eight innovative UK Agritech scaleups have been selected from over twenty applications for the 2023 cohort who will participate in the 5-month program, which includes two funded in-market visits to Australia.
• In-Market Visit #1 (November 23): Teams will participate in a Welcome Breakfast event hosted by the British Consulate General in Sydney, followed by an intensive Bootcamp. The visit includes a field trip to the New England North-West region, an agricultural powerhouse for NSW, to visit key sites, including NSW DPI Agricultural Research Institute in Armadale and the University of Sydney DigiFarm in Narrabri as well as attending the Farmers2Founders AGtivate event in Tamworth.
• In-Market Visit #2 (February 24): Teams will have the opportunity to participate in Asia Pacific’s premier Agrifood tech event, evokeAG, being held in Perth in February 2024, along with attending numerous side-line agrifood & tech events and pitching opportunities to investors and potential partners.
This week, the Global Incubator Program- Gateway to Australia started with an Official Launch event. This is the second program in the series delivered by Farmers2Founders in partnership with GROW and Innovate UK to support UK Agritech scale-ups to land and launch into Australia.
Jon Hazell, Partnership Manager Global Incubator Program, Innovate UK, said, ”I am delighted to continue the relationship with our partners at Farmers2Founders and GROW, building on the successful cohort from last year and now announcing cohort two so we can continue to support UK organisations in Agri-Tech that are now looking to innovate their products and services through building global partnerships and collaborations to accelerate their growth and scaling journey in Australia.”
The following teams have been selected as part of the 2024 cohort
AgAnalyst Ltd: www.aganalyst.co.uk/
Precision farm data integration platform for improving profitability, significantly reducing GHG emissions and accelerating the adoption of precision ag.
AgriSynth Ltd: https://agrisynth.io/
An enabling technology creating novel and complex synthetic imagery to reduce the time needed to train agricultural AI models. Applications are as diverse as agricultural robotics, field research, controlled environment agriculture and grain quality.
Cattle Eye Ltd: www.cattleeye.com
A hardware-independent, autonomous dairy cow monitoring platform harnessing the capabilities of advanced AI and video analytics. This is a hands-free solution to monitoring a cow’s welfare and performance.
Flox Ltd: www.flox.ai
Integrated poultry livestock sensing and management platform, utilising AI to bring better welfare and performance outcomes to broiler chicken production.
Intelligent Growth Solutions Ltd: https://www.
Innovative vertical farming infrastructure that uses a Total Control Environment Agriculture platform to manage growth cycle stages and operational inputs.
Personalised Diagnostics Ltd: https://pd2x.com/
A clinical diagnostics and vaccines delivery Software as a Service (SaaS) company, developing innovative, user-friendly, cloud-based platforms for more efficient animal diagnostic testing.
Studford Agtech Ltd: www.ag-drive.com
Ag-drive is a seamless, integrated, cost-effective business management platform for farmers and ag contractors. From job planning, scheduling, recording, completion and invoicing, the app is a paperless system that enables the business to be more accountable, traceable and efficient.
Wootzano Ltd: http://www.wootzano.com/
A highly dexterous fresh produce packing robotic system designed to meet the needs of the post-harvest industry. A reliable and immediate solution to labour shortages includes cutting-edge vision technology, sophisticated machine learning, cloud updates, and the system can learn and see in real-time.
The program was officially launched this week through a virtual presentation and introductions event, during which Louise Cantillon, the UK Consul-General for NSW and Deputy Trade Commissioner for APAC, warmly welcomed the successful teams, “I’m excited to see a second Gateway to Australia program cohort beginning their journey to expand into the Australian agricultural sector. The program represents the strong ongoing commitment between our nations – which now see even more opportunities with the Free Trade Agreement coming into effect. I’m looking forward to seeing how our agritech innovations can work together in this rapidly growing and transformative space.”
The Gateway to Australia program includes bespoke business support, with each team allocated a dedicated agrifood internationalisation coach and the pairing of expert mentors to provide introductions and connections to strategic partners, suppliers, investors, customers, distributors, and more. The cohort learning experience includes group sessions, masterclasses and one-on-one office hours. The UK agritech scale-ups will participate in industry showcase events and pitching opportunities across the 25-week program.
Dr Christine Pitt, Managing Director of Farmers2Founders, said in her address, “We are excited to kick off the second cohort of the Global Innovation Program. Our mission is to work with entrepreneurs, founders, start-ups and scale-ups who make a positive difference in the global food and agriculture sector, impacting sustainability, security and food waste to ultimately help farmers become more productive. All the teams selected into this program fit well within that definition, and we look forward to working with you and welcoming you to Australia in November.”
To learn more about the program, visit https://www.farmers2founders.
AboutFarmers2Founders:
Farmers2Founders is a unique world-first agrifood tech and innovation incubator that operates nationally across all sectors and all parts of the value chain. They help producers fast-track the development, commercialisation and adoption of agrifood tech and innovation solutions that benefit individual farm businesses and broader industry and community levels. Farmers2Founders also support agtech and foodtech developers and researchers looking to commercialise their technologies (eg. digital; IoT; automation & robotics; precision agriculture; data and decision support tools; traceability; controlled environment agriculture; sustainable production systems etc) and innovative agrifood businesses along the value chain looking to create impact in areas including (but not limited to): plant-based foods & alternative proteins; functional foods; health & wellness products; personalised nutrition; food & packaging waste; and the circular economy.
www.farmers2founders.com
About GROW:
Based in Singapore, GROW is an ecosystem catalyst advancing innovation, sustainability, and resilience in the food system. We’re on a mission to inspire and accelerate extraordinary founders who are developing technology solutions that deliver positive impact for people, place, and planet. Through our fund and accelerator programs we work with startups to supercharge their growth on the global stage. GROW is supported by Enterprise Singapore and backed by leading agrifoodtech VC AgFunder.
www.gogrow.co
About Innovate UK:
Innovate UK is the UK’s national innovation agency. We support business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies and UK regions. We help businesses grow through the development and commercialisation of new products, processes, and services, supported by an outstanding innovation ecosystem that is agile, inclusive, and easy to navigate.
https://www.ukri.org/councils/
