This sponsored post has been published in partnership with AgriFutures Australia. The author is Casey Dunn, a writer and corporate affairs consultant based in Orange, New South Wales.

For more than 30 years, Australia’s rural R&D corporations have partnered with traditional research providers to drive innovation that solves industry challenges. Now, they’re also looking to the startup ecosystem for faster, bolder solutions that reach producers sooner.

And they’re hoping to find them at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London next week.

“Investing in Australia is a huge North Star for us, but we’ve got an additional A$500 million over the next decade to seize big opportunities and deliver the range of solutions growers want. And we can’t rely just on Australian agtech companies to do that.”   

Delivered through proven procurement approaches, this ongoing stream beckons strategic collaborations, inviting stakeholders from all corners of the sector to join forces to advance industry innovation.

For Hort Innovation’s Jesse Reader, World Agri-Tech is the perfect place to scout early-stage innovations that could benefit Australia’s horticulture industry. The Head of Investment, Growth and Commercial will join a delegation of Australians heading to Europe’s leading agtech networking event on 30 September – 1 October 2024.

“We have to start filling a funnel of companies that we think are investable – and who we want to foster a relationship with to understand the trajectory of their technology,” explained Reader.

“World Agri-Tech provides a platform for us to reach European companies and tell them, ‘we’re open for business.’”

Driving collaboration between Europe and Australia and strengthening international relationships among innovators, corporates, government entities, and ecosystem players is also a key objective for Harriet Mellish, AgriFutures Australia General Manager for Global Innovation Networks.

“We’re interested in creating a stronger global ecosystem where we can look to our international partners and how they are addressing challenges, and also offer solutions that have strengthened Australian industries too.

“The AgriFutures growAG. platform partially does this through promoting agrifood and technology opportunities, expertise and research from Australia and across the globe. We want to connect stakeholders through the platform to drive the commercialisation of innovation that will go on to solve these shared problems,” explained Mellish.

New approach to procuring innovation

Hort Innovation is one of Australia’s rural research and development corporations – a unique model for agricultural innovation where Australia’s federal government and primary producers co-invest to drive industry-relevant research.

Tailored to specific sectors (15 in total, from horticulture to dairy, grains, and wine) ‘the RDCs’ have helped drive Australian agricultural innovation since 1989.

But there’s a growing appetite for new co-investment approaches that are more ambitious, attract new investors, and deliver transformative innovation streams.

To propel the horticulture industry forward fast, and at scale, Hort Innovation has introduced three co-leveraged investment pathways with A$500 million of uncontracted potential:

• Australian-grown Innovation to nurture grassroots innovation – supporting growers and supply chain partners to pressure test their ideas or validate a business model.
• Incubate and Accelerate to launch Australian and international startups wanting to scale their solution within the horticulture domain.
• And the Hort Innovation Venture Fund, which will channel resources into Australian and international high-growth early-stage startups to propel innovative products and services into grower hands.

Fertile testing ground for European innovators

Australia is widely regarded as a test bed for international agtech solutions – with its diverse climate zones, varied production systems, and high adoption of technology.

But partnering with an RDC like Hort Innovation takes the value proposition up a level.  

“I keep asking myself, ‘What are we doing that’s different to others?’” said Jesse Reader. “Because we’re not the first people to play in the area of accelerators and incubators [and funds]”.

“But we’ve got the biggest hort address book in Australia. We’ve got deep engagement with an enormous group of members across 37 industries. And we’ve got incredibly strong data and insights,” he added.

“And for early-stage businesses, those things are critical advantages in assessing your go-to-market proposition, which part of the market you’ll address, and who your cornerstone customers are.”

“There’s huge value in that.”

If you have ideas for investment or are interested in partnering with Hort Innovation, visit https://www.horticulture.com.au/hort-innovation/our-work/frontiers/

Industry: investor collaboration delivers revolutionary VC model

Hort Innovation joins a trade delegation being led by the Australian office of global alternative investment management firm, Artesian. Now in its 20th year, the certified B Corp manages money for government organisations, pension and superannuation funds, insurance companies, family offices, corporations, and industry groups. 

Among them is Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation – GRDC – and its GrainInnovate venture fund. Artesian Senior Manager Agrifood, Victoria Prowse, explained that the partnership yielded more than just fund management.

“Artesian is a sector-focused VC firm with a key specialization in agrifood. Our unique VCaaS (Venture Capital as a Service) platform enables government organizations, industry groups, corporations, and research institutes to leverage the financial and strategic returns of high-growth startups. GrainInnovate, launched in partnership with GRDC six years ago, is one of our earliest VCaaS collaborations,” she said.

The idea was to establish a platform that enabled GRDC to participate in private equity markets to invest into emerging technologies – but as a single LP (Limited Partner). “It was paramount that they had full control over their strategic mandates and investment fit,” added Prowse.

Balancing the financial + strategic fit

GRDC takes an atypical VC approach – and Artesian accommodates that. “GrainInnovate is not a two-three year fit [for quick financial return]” explained Victoria. “GRDC is looking a decade ahead and saying, ‘This is what we’re trying to achieve: firstly, support grain growers, and secondly, support the growth of the startups who can help them.’”

For Artesian as fund managers, it’s not just financial delivery that matters.

“It’s very much about the strategic angle as well – finding investable opportunities that are very closely aligned to the needs of Australian grain growers,” explained Prowse.

VCaaS doesn’t replace GRDC’s traditional investment model, but complements it, giving it the ability to move quickly and nimbly, and capitalise on exciting technologies emerging outside of traditional pathways.

“We’re seeing interest come through now with other RDCs and corporates wanting to use VCaaS to play a more active role in this early-stage space to accelerate growth, scale technology, and support industry in the process.”

VC with genuine mutual benefit

From Artesian’s perspective, World Agri-Tech is about learning what’s investable in Europe and the UK; what are other investors looking at; and what are the emerging themes.

“But it’s also about startup pipeline engagement and being early to the conversation with companies that we wouldn’t get access to if we weren’t on the ground spending that time with them,” added Prowse.

International startups stand to benefit from partnering with Australia’s RDCs, too. “Every Australian grain grower invests into GRDC, providing an enormous strategic network that’s incredibly powerful for a startup to leverage,” explained Prowse.

“[As Jesse said,] being invested in by an RDC is incredibly beneficial from a strategic level, not just a financial one. That’s what’s really exciting.”

Joining Artesian, Hort Innovation, and GRDC on their UK/ Europe trade mission are dairy industry research and development corporation, Dairy Australia, and end-to-end Australian grain trader, GrainCorp – whose A$30M GrainCorp Venture Fund invests across agtech, animal nutrition and food innovation.

To connect with the Australian delegation, please contact Victoria Prowse at Artesian via [email protected]