Today's episode is a tangible example of a company in the "natural capital" space. While not traditional agtech, the Hydrowood journey hits familiar themes: building a business within nature's constraints, managing capital intensity, and the frustrating search for the right investors.

Andrew Morgan watched the Pieman River in Tasmania dam in the 1970s. In 1986, Lake Pieman flooded, submerging centuries-old forests. Many years later, he and co-founder David Wise spotted trees protruding from the dark water- large quantities of native species like Huon Pine, Tasmanian Myrtle, and Sassafras.

The timber was salvageable, but they needed underwater logging technology that wouldn't disturb the lake's ecosystem. This led to the founding of Hydrowood. Today, the business has attracted millions in investment and high-end brand partnerships, but the journey has been far from easy.

In this episode, guest host Adam Taylor, Insights Lead at Tenacious, and Andrew Morgan discuss:

• Why the Hydrowood narrative captivates investors and media
• Trading off custom versus standard machinery to lower financial risk
• Pivoting to crowdfunding when traditional investment proved difficult
• The future of sustainable and ethical forestry

Andrew is also the Managing Director of SFM, an asset manager for large-scale plantation estates and carbon project developer.

Useful Links:

• The economics of valuing natural capital, with Ken Henry
• Hydrowood featured in first global flagship store by R.M Williams
• Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme | Clean Energy Regulator
• OnMarket crowd-sourced funding
• Forest Economics Congress, MONA

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Over the past few years, the conversation about autonomy in agtech has moved from “but, does it work?” to “how can I get started?” This is a significant shift, indicative of autonomous machinery becoming a fully commercial category in agriculture.

In this episode, Matthew Pryor, Founding Partner at Tenacious Ventures, discusses his recent observations at the Gatton Agtech Showcase, in QLD, Australia, highlighting the move towards production-ready autonomous machinery. He discusses how structure is now emerging in the Australian agtech autonomy market, including in sales and distribution, with a mix of companies from established equipment dealers to venture backed scale-ups. He predicts growth in this market to only compound in the coming years.

Matthew and Sarah are joined by Shane Thomas, founder of Upstream Ag Insights, to also dive into recent agtech news and market trends.

They discuss:

• The role of traditional dealership networks in an autonomous future
• The potential misuse of the term ‘autonomous’
• Regional variations in market dynamics around autonomy between Australia, the US, and Canada
• The forces reshaping crop protection, including the rise of non-chemical solutions such as laser weeding and electric weed control

Useful Links:

• Carbon Robotics raises $20m to build ‘another AI robot’?, AgFunder News 
• Monarch Tractor sued over tractors that were 'unable to operate autonomously', TechCrunch
• Is Farmers’ Traditional Loyalty to Ag Equipment Colors Fading?, Farm Equipment
• The Four Forces reshaping the crop protection industry and what comes next, Upstream Ag Insights
• The Generics Revolution and the New Economic Geography of the Global Pesticide Industry, Journal of Agrarian Change
• The Race to Define the Future of Ag Retail with Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights, Agtech So What?
• Getting into the Weeds: AI, Computer Vision, and the Future of Non-Chemical Weeding, Agtech So What?
• Investment Notes: Azaneo, Tenacious Ventures
• Disrupting the AgTech Ecosystem with Ron Adner, Agtech So What?
• Vavilovian Mimicry, Bionity

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

• [0007:25] The role of dealerships in an autonomous future
• [00:17:45] The forces reshaping crop protection
• [00:25:20] Weeds adapting to non-chemical crop solutions

In the race to decarbonize agriculture, the spotlight often falls on carbon sequestration, genetics, and alternative proteins. But have we overlooked something that’s right in front of us? Electricity.

Mike Casey is a self-described “tech bro turned farmer” from Cromwell, New Zealand. Mike runs what’s believed to be the world’s first fully electric farm, made up of 21 electric machines, from irrigation systems and frost-fighting fans, to electric tractors and forklifts. His business is aptly named Electric Cherries, where power is generated from renewable sources on-farm. Mike says this has enabled him to save tens of thousands on energy costs every year, while also developing a business model for farming that’s both profitable and low-carbon.

Sarah and Mike discuss:

• How an old diesel pump kicked off Mike’s electrification crusade
• The economics of going electric on a farm (and is it only possible in New Zealand or on a cherry farm?)
• What electric machinery changes (and doesn’t) about running a farm business 
• Why farmers stand to benefit from the shift away from centralized, fossil fuel power generation to decentralized renewable energy

Mike is also the CEO of Rewiring Aotearoa, a movement helping Kiwis switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. His mission is simple: make electric technology an economic no-brainer for every farmer and household.

Useful Links:

• On-Farm Electrification isn't an equipment change, it's a systems change, Agtech So… What?
• Electric Cherries,  Evoke Ag presentation by Mike Casey
• Electric Farms Report, Rewiring Aotearoa
• The future of (decentralized) fertilizer, with Jupiter Ionics (Tenacious portfolio company)

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

What happens when an agtech startup with market pull, a clear mission, and global momentum still doesn’t make it?

Nikki Davey is the founder of Grown Not Flown, which helped thousands of local flower growers reach customers who wanted sustainable blooms. Nikki’s app directly addressed the problem of ‘flower miles’. In Australia and the US, a store bought bouquet is likely to be made up of flowers that have been flown long distances, from places such as South America, Asia, or Africa.

Nikki won the National AgriFutures Rural Women's Award in 2023 for Grown Not Flown, which helped to further establish the business. But, as the Grown Not Flown app was taken up across multiple countries, the challenge of scaling became harder for the startup and ultimately it was wound up. 

In this candid, episode Sarah and Nikki discuss:

·  Misconceptions about the hardest part of founding an agtech startup.

·  The realities of small founding teams,  finding investors, and scaling with limited resources.

·  The emotional toll of what happens when your identity is tied to your startup.

·  Why the end of a business does not mean the end of the mission

Useful Resources:

• Victorian rural tech entrepreneur Nikki Davey named the 2023 AgriFutures Rural Women's Award National Winner
• Are agtech startups just digital agribusinesses? Mark Kahn, Omnivore, Agtech So What?
• Sustainable Floristry Network

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

‘Bundling’ is a well-known business strategy, especially in tech, where it’s not only used to increase sales and move slow-selling products, but also to tie customers into an ecosystem (such as Apple or Microsoft).

So what about all the unbundling that’s been happening in agtech recently? While historically we’ve seen seed companies offer bundled options, such as seeds, crop management, and data products, there is now a trend towards ‘unbundling’ in agriculture. This is exemplified by Corteva’s recent decision to unbundle its seed and crop protection divisions into two publicly traded companies. Similarly, Farmers Business Network(FBN) has also spun off its global crop solutions business from its digital marketplace. 

In this episode, Sarah Nolet unpacks the bundling/unbundling dilemma in agtech with Shane Thomas, founder of Upstream Ag Insights and Matthew Pryor, Founding Partner at Tenacious Ventures. They discuss:

• The strategic impacts of unbundling for companies such as FBN and Corteva, as well as the broader impacts on farmers and markets.
• The market dynamics that encourage companies to bundle or unbundle.
• How Large Language Models (LLMs) are being used in agtech, including Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and other AI frameworks.
• Shane Thomas’ new AskUpstream AI tool.
• Recent acquisitions in agtech, such as the Growers Edge acquisition of FarmTest

Useful Links:

• What Corteva’s Seed and Chemical Split Could Mean For Your Farm, Successful Farming 
• Growers Edge Acquires FarmTest, Growers Edge
• Farmers Business Network the latest to spin off company, following Corteva, Kraft Heinz, AgFunderNews
• DTN acquires Grain Discovery, DTN
• AlphaEarth, Google DeepMind
• Kraft Heinz to split a decade after merger in a bid to revive growth, The Guardian

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

The biggest issue facing the cotton industry isn't fast fashion or water consumption. It's that the people growing cotton have been rendered invisible. The industry fixates on fiber quality and commodity pricing while the farmers themselves– and their role in determining sustainability outcomes– get lost.

Marzia Lanfranchi, founder of the global community Cotton Diaries, is a strategic consultant working to improve supply chain sustainability in the cotton industry. She argues that cotton is viewed first and foremost as ‘a cheap fiber,’ instead of a commodity that is grown in the field. 

She has seen that when cotton is treated purely as "a cheap fiber" rather than an agricultural product shaped by farming practices, the entire system suffers, including the sustainability frameworks fashion brands are trying to build.

In this episode, we discuss why putting farmers at the center changes everything.

Sarah and Marzia discuss:

• What fashion brands miss or overlook about regenerative agriculture
• Why cotton is often perceived as a ‘water thirsty crop’ (and why that is not always the case)
• How stories are useful ‘tools’ to help people visualize solutions to problems
• How traceability can be built into supply chains to help fashion brands improve sustainability

Useful Links:

• Cotton Diaries “Manifesto”
• Veja
• Landfill to Farmfill: rethinking cotton waste (podcast)
• Promises of premiums won’t cut it to scale sustainable agrifood supply chains

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

As the world’s largest agricultural economy, when China makes a move, the world pays attention. China has just unveiled an ambitious plan to accelerate its development of ag machinery by shortening its research and development cycles. So will China dominate the future of agricultural machinery, and what does this mean for dealers, farmers, and agtech companies?

Lachlan Monsbourgh, Global Rural Agricultural and Environmental Lead at Rabobank, joins us to discuss China’s pivotal role in global agriculture. This includes China’s rapidly developing ag machinery industry, which can manufacture tractors and equipment for about half the cost of the other major players in the US, Europe and Japan. While the products currently face quality, durability and serviceability challenges, Lachlan argues it is only a matter of time before these are overcome. 

Lachlan and Sarah discuss:

• The price point difference between Chinese agricultural manufacturers and other big OEMs
• The impact of cheaper tractors on agtech adoption and autonomy
• How China is moving to ensure sustainable supply chains from countries such as Brazil.
• Global biodiversity targets and the role of autonomous robotics in helping to achieve them.

Useful Links:

• How China is reshaping Global Food Systems for the Climate Change Era, World Economic Forum
• Target to accelerate agriculture machinery development, AgTechNavigator
• Kunming Montreal Biodiversity framework
• The Three Categories of Autonomy in Agriculture, SwarmFarm Robotics

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

When the agtech is not working in the field, we can be quick to search for answers in the product itself. But sometimes, the solution is not there. That’s because it’s not a technical problem, but rather a social systems challenge.

Kevin Boyle is the Director of Organizational and Workforce Development at the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI). He argues that a key component of the farming and food system is often overlooked; and that’s the people who work on the ground. Farm workers can be seen as low-skilled, with little more to offer than the set tasks they perform. However, Kevin is seeking to change this approach, to better recognize the knowledge these workers have, and to create recognizable career paths for them.

Kevin also believes that focusing on the workforce will ultimately benefit the development and adoption of agtech. He spent much of his career in telecommunication tech, where he helped integrate the new digital technologies of the 1990s into the system, including the workers.

Sarah and Kevin discuss:

·  Kevin’s unique career background, from growing up on a farm, to working in telecommunications tech, and consulting across Europe and the United States.

·  How the perception of farm workers as ‘tools’ rather than humans with skills, knowledge, and desires has hindered tech adoption.

·  How to better recognize the skills and knowledge of farm workers, to build high performance farming businesses

·  How applied university research can be used to test a product in the broader system before it goes to market.

Useful links:

·  Can robotics solve the farm labor problem? With Connie Bowen and Sophie Thorel

·  How policy hamstrings agtech in California - Walt Duflock

Ask any farmer what their biggest challenge is right now and most will say ‘labor’. But what if, instead of trying to get more farm workers, we focused on changing the types of jobs available on farms? That’s where robotics comes in.

Unfortunately, successfully commercializing robots in agriculture has been extraordinarily difficult, especially relative to sectors like healthcare, defence and warehousing.

We break down the problem into three key challenges, based on research by Sophie Thorel, robotics expert and researcher at CREO Syndicate. Sophie argues robotics in agriculture needs to overcome the technical challenge of varied, uncontrollable environments; the cost and capital challenges that often comes with hardware; and the social stakeholder challenge of getting farmers and farm workers involved in the design process. Connie Bowen, GP at Farmhand Ventures, also joins us, drawing on her expertise in understanding and investing in agtech from a labor-first perspective and how all of these challenges intersect.

Connie, Sophie and Sarah discuss:

• Sophie’s journey into robotics and why a family office investment platform cares about robots in food & agriculture
• How we can overcome the time and cost it takes for on-farm robotics to develop to a stage where it’s actually useful for farmers/growers
• Why it’s so important for farmers and farm workers to be involved over the long term in a robotics program- from design into implementation
• How overcoming the key challenges in ag robotics could lead to a revolution in farm labor– more attractive and skilled farm opportunities

Useful Links:

• Agriculture Robotics: Technologies Enabling the Fourth Industrial Revolution" - CREO report
• Ag Launch
• Pete Nelson on partnering with growers to build better agtech
• Beyond VC: Redeemable Equity in Agtech, with Connie Bowen
• The Three Categories of Autonomy in Agriculture, SwarmFarm Robotics
• Burro
• TRIC Robotics

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

The term ‘agtech’ now encompasses so many different types of businesses and innovations, that from an investment perspective, it can look overly complex. However perhaps the opposite is true?

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Ominvore, shares his ‘agtech-agribusinesss convergence theory’; where agtech startups eventually grow to look like a more conventional agribusiness company. He argues that if an agtech startup can’t see a pathway to either becoming an agribusiness or at least complementing one, then it’s likely to fail. The recent agtech startup failures in animal protein and vertical farming are an example of this.

So what does this argument mean for venture capital, which is all about high growth potential, disruption, and of course, high risk? Are VCs likely to invest in startups which are going to become ‘just another agribusiness’? And does that even matter?

For important context, Mark Kahn is based in India, which has a vastly different investment landscape compared with western countries. India has an incredibly large agriculture economy,  worth about $US600 - 700 billion, with about 50% of the Indian workforce employed in agriculture.  If you compare that with Australia, only 2.5% of the national workforce is involved in agriculture. In the United States, it's around 10%. 

Mark and Sarah discuss:

• Omnivore’s investment thesis and how it has evolved over time to focus on food security, agricultural prosperity, resource efficiency & rural resilience
• The unique agtech investment conditions in India and how it compares with markets in western countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia 
• Whether we are starting to see a global uptick in agtech investment
• Why Mark believes there is an agtech-agribusiness convergence
• How the Indian agtech market can be overlooked by western investors, because they do not take the time to understand it

USEFUL LINKS:

• Value creation in Indian agriculture - McKinsey and Company, 2025
• DeHaat - the largest farmer platform in India and portfolio company of Omnivore.
• What caused the farmer protests in India and what does it mean for innovation in Ag?- Agtech… So What? episode, featuring Mark Kahn and other investors.

For more information and resources, visit our website. 

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe the information is correct, we provide no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.