Australian agrifood investment platform expected to grow

Based on the user statistics released by AgriFutures Australia analysing the uptake and usage of its online investment platform, grow^AG, global interest in Australian agrifood innovation is expected to continue its growth trajectory.

A collaboration between the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAFF) and Research & Development Corporations (RDCs), AgriFutures grow^AG was established in 2021. It is an online marketplace allowing users to explore and connect with relevant expertise, research and investment opportunities from across Australia’s agrifood innovation system.

In 2022, more than 100 commercial opportunities, along with 22,828 research projects, were listed on the marketplace, collectively attracting more than double the visitors to the site compared to its launch year in 2021. There was also a 150% year-on-year increase in international web visitors in 2022, with key markets including the United States, Singapore, India, the UK, New Zealand and Germany. This has led to 450+ connections and 10 finalised deals.

Ariana Sippel, grow^AG Senior Manager, said the increased engagement on the platform was in line with the activity reported in October 2022 by venture capital firm AgFunder in its Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report.

According to Sippel, Australia’s agrifood sector is maturing, with AgFunder’s region report showing that investors injected more than half a billion dollars into Australian startups in 2021. The platform has seen a boost in the diversity of the types of companies listing on the site and an increase in organisations offering opportunities.

“There’s still those early-stage startups looking to get to a pilot or minimum viable product, but increasingly we are seeing groups that have a product in market and are at the seed funding or Series A stage,” Sippel said.

DataFarming, a Toowoomba-based technology company, is a repeat user of the platform. It was founded by Tim Neale and his wife Peta in 2017 to deliver digital solutions, most of which are driven by satellite imagery to unlock the value of farm data for agronomists and producers.

“We first listed our commercial opportunity on grow^AG in December 2021,” Neale said.

“By the first couple of months of 2022, we had generated more than a dozen very strong leads from private investors and VCs from both Australia and overseas, and with little or no effort from us.

“In comparison, at the time, I had about 20 other leads that had taken me years to accumulate.

“It was a very easy decision to launch our Series A$5 million capital raise with the platform.”

Climate trend

Sippel said a number of areas are anticipated to continue to drive significant interest on the platform, including opportunities relating to sustainability, climate and carbon.

“In 2023, grow^AG will feature a lot of innovative new technologies around minimising waste and/or finding additional value from waste streams,” Sippel said.

“Finding new ways to monetise natural capital assets sustainably also continues to attract attention locally and globally.

“As industry continues to face labour constraints, automation and smart solutions that help producers better deploy labour are proving popular as well, particularly given the scalability of those solutions.”

Proof of concept

While grow^AG is still relatively new as a marketplace, Sippel said a number of significant partnerships were developed throughout 2022.

“We’re seeing more and more of these early-stage discussions facilitated via grow^AG converting into negotiations and then into deals. For example, UK-based company Deep Planet, which licensed the Wine Nutrition app from Wine Australia, is a great instance of someone discovering a new technology on our platform they can develop through to market,” she said. “We also had a German consultancy come out to Australia recently after using our platform to seek out commercial partners for their global innovation project.”

The annual evoke^AG event will be hosted by AgriFutures on 21–22 February in Adelaide, bringing together the agrifood innovation community including producers, innovators, investors, researchers, corporates, universities and governments.

Among the speakers at Adelaide Convention Centre will be Professor Craig Baillie from University of Southern Queensland. According to Sippel, Baillie has used grow^AG to connect with potential commercialisation partners.

“One particular approach came from an investment company typically focused on agricultural production and land that Uni SQ knew. However, they didn’t know they were interested in supporting further R&D or investment of this type of technology,” Siddel said. “Since the first approach, they have signed NDAs, scoped up a potential R&D project and discussed terms for investment in the technology.”

The event is an opportunity to connect with others in this space and create/build networks both locally and internationally.

“From startups to universities to research centres, we really promote diversity across our listings, and can see that’s getting engagement from our audience,” Siddel said.

To explore the grow^AG marketplace, make enquiries or make a submission: growag.com.

Image caption: iStock.com/crazycroat