AgTech - LaunchVic
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AgTech

Victoria is Australia’s largest agricultural producer, but despite our reputation as the nation’s food bowl, our AgTech sector remains small and underdeveloped.

To help more Ag entrepreneurs to start up, LaunchVic announced a partnership with Agriculture Victoria in September 2021 to boost the number of Victorian AgTech startups and build entrepreneurial culture and capability in this crucial sector.

In February 2022, we funded three world-class programs Farmers2Founders, Rocket Seeder and SproutX to run pre-accelerator programs, set to equip close to 500 aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills to turn an idea into a business.

In early 2023 we also announced two grant rounds to further develop the sector.

  • The AgTech Grants Program, which provides grants of up to $50,000 to Victorian AgTech startups looking to move to the next stage of their growth.
  • The AgTech Angel Network Grant (now closed), which supports Victoria’s first dedicated AgTech Angel Network.

Now, we’re announcing the Hugh Victor McKay Fund, a new sidecar fund for Victorian AgTech startups.

With every dollar of funding to be matched by two dollars of private investment, the Hugh Victor McKay Fund will activate more than $3 million in total capital for founders building the future of on-farm productivity and sustainability.

Looking to grow your AgTech startup this year? Connect with a wide range of funded activity below.

 

Our Funded AgTech Programs

Farmers2Founders

Founder

Rocket Seeder

Founder

SproutX

Founder

Grant recipients

AEI

AEI is developing sophisticated energy solutions for the agriculture sector that work behind the meter to provide automated optimisation and participation in the energy marketplace

Air Agri

AirAgri is a agricultural platform inspired by social networks, market places and Agri software. The product offers a variety of safety record keeping solutions, the key focus is on protecting and keeping farmers safe and ensure that every farmer returns home at the end of the day.

Ambit Robotics

The Ambit robot wakes up each night to count and grade each piece of fruit in a crop row. Taking these measurements every 24 hours gives grower users an unprecedented level of insight into both short-term (one day) and longer-term (multiweek) yields.

Farmo

Farmo is designing products utilising cutting edge technology to address the pain points on farm. Monitoring water supply to livestock is especially challenging with labour shortages, time pressure, petrol prices etc putting the welfare of animals at risk. Farmo is solving this problem with a floating water trough sensor like the Water Rat which communicates by Cat-M1/NB-IoT in real-time when the level drops and action is required.

Engenia Solutions

Boodbox is a thermal image-based pollination management system for the commercial agriculture sector. They are addressing the lack of non-invasive, bio-safe and reliable colony counting method to estimate bee population in the hives used in the commercial agriculture industry.

Mobble

Mobble is an AgTech startup that has developed a cloud-based livestock farm management software with a mission to make farmers’ lives easier and more successful. Mobble has created a user-friendly platform that streamlines farm management and strongly focuses on connection and simplicity.

Rubens Technologies

Rubens has developed a first in class non-destructive technology for determining fruit quality and consistency. This provides the fresh fruit industry with an intelligence system for real-time and non-destructive fruit quality assessment along the supply chain, in a user-friendly product.

AquaTerra

AquaTerra combines new soil sensing hardware developed and manufactured in Australia, an IoT platform for power efficient connectivity over long distances, and a user-friendly analytics interface providing farms with valuable data and actionable insights to make informed decisions.

GAIA Project

Gaia’s world first Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) channel, produces industry leading crop densities without the need for transplantation. Competitors use human and robot assistance to create high densities to combat low profitability. But these techniques increase CAPEX/OPEX costs, Gaia’s NFT channel creates the higher output without the need for transplanting.

Leaf Protein Co

The Leaf Protein Co. has developed platform-technology to extract leaf protein from any plant source to increase the biodiversity of our plant protein ingredients, enabling farmers to generate revenue from a wider range of crops, both cash and cover crops.

PHNXX

PHNXX’s modular microgrid system provides farmers with mobile and scalable solutions to ensure they have reliable access to clean energy generated through solar and wind systems. Our integrated system includes battery storage to ensure that their energy needs are covered even when there is no sun or wind.

Tie Up Farming

Tie Up Farming is focused on offering data-driven solutions to optimize farming operations and enhance agricultural productivity. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT devices, we aim to address the challenge of making data-driven, timely decisions in the agricultural sector.

Vimana Tech

Vimana employs a unique blend of IoT sensors, smart farm equipment, computer vision, and edge AI processing so Beekeepers can see the real-time health of all their hives, no matter how far away. This solution enables informed, precise and timely on-farm decisions to minimise hive inspections.

INVESTMENT SUPPORT FOR AGTECH STARTUPS

The Hugh Victor McKay Fund is a new sidecar fund for Victorian AgTech startups run by LaunchVic with funding from Agriculture Victoria.

The fund will co-invest between $100,000-$200,000 into at least five early-stage AgTech startups over the next 12 months.

With every dollar of funding to be matched by two dollars of private investment, the Hugh Victor McKay Fund will activate more than $3 million in total capital for founders building the future of on-farm productivity and sustainability.

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