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This week we speak to Agronomeye, an Australian agritech startup, giving farmers a razor-sharp 3D view of their farm using ultra-high-resolution imagery to create a groundbreaking farm-scale ‘digital twin.’

Agronomeye's AgTwin platform came to life through a collaboration with innovation heavyweights, Microsoft and CSIRO.

And it's helping optimise on-farm decision-making with advanced modelling capabilities and dynamic overlays that enable farmers to observe and understand the risks and opportunities unique to their property. 

From yield to soil data, weather, hydrology, and livestock movements, the platform enables all manner of software and hardware integrations. 

It's like your very own Sims – but for farmers. Here our evokeAG. contributor Casey Dunn, catches up with Agronomeye’s Co-Founder and CEO Stu Adam, to learn more.

From stone fruit to apples, Rubens Technologies is empowering fruit farmers to fetch the top dollar for their premium products, using AI prediction technology. 

Understanding and assessing fruit quality in a more timely, and far less intrusive way – is the solution Daniel Pelliccia, the CEO and Co-Founder of Rubens Technologies, has been testing vigorously and is ready to take to market.

Combining a hand-held scanner with machine learning analytics, users can scan fruit pre- or post-harvest and obtain real-time information that will help future-proof market outcomes and dictate quality downstream. 

Here Megan Woodward chats with Daniel about their insightful pilots in Australia and Southeast Asia and what’s next for the successful agritech startup.

This week we catch up with Mark Allison, the CEO of one of Australia’s largest agribusinesses, Elders.

Mark spoke at evokeAG. in Melbourne, back in 2020 – a time before Australia and the world were plunged into lockdown due to COVID-19. At the time, Australia had suffered one of its worst droughts on record and bushfires had ravaged large parts of the community.

Now as Australia starts to emerge from the pandemic to the ‘new normal’ and with the agricultural sector booming; Mark shares with us his optimism for the future of Australian agriculture, and how profitability, productivity, and sustainability will be key drivers for the industry going forward.

We hope you enjoy Mark's conversation with our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward.

This week we speak with Naeem Zafar who made the Silicon Valley home 25 years ago and in that time, he’s founded seven companies and invested in, and advised on, more than 30. Until four years ago though, he’d had very little to do with agriculture, let alone attempting to produce tech to solve problems for the sector.

An electrical engineer by trade, now Naeem is single-handedly disrupting the post-harvest agricultural industry through his machine learning and Internet of Things solution, TeleSense that’s helping growers predict the quality of crops in storage and transit – and provide real actionable insights.

And it’s all thanks to a sliding doors moment involving a group of Australian executives on the east and west coast, searching for storage solutions for the grain industry.

Here our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward explores the many benefits of this wireless sensing and predictive analytics solution and what’s next.  

Matt Newell, a perennial cereals research officer with NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) sees a very big future for perennial wheats in Australia. 

With the support of AgriFutures Australia, the duo have established an early-stage cluster of researchers and industry end-users to guide development of this new crop to target the premium artisan grain market.

Delivering improved sustainability, on-farm profitability, and nutritional outcomes – perennial wheats have everyone from mixed farmers to artisan brewers and bakers excited.

Here our evokeAG. contributor Casey Dunn speaks with Matt Newell about its rising potential. 

Today we hear from the Queensland AI Hub about the endless opportunities that Artificial Intelligence offers the Australian tech industry and how we can make the most of it. 

AI is already creating exponential impact globally, and locally for our food and fibre supply chain, by alleviating workforce and labour shortages – a problem for Australian and global agriculture. 

Here our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward speaks with Queensland AI Hub's CEO, Sue Keay, about how AI and robotics can help take the pressure off the agrifood industry and why it's important the government and industry support the Australian tech industry to become world leaders and firmly plant Australians as makers, not just takers, of tech.

We hope you enjoy their conversation. 

With more than 40 years in the venture capital game, Andy Ziolkowski – the Managing Director of US-based food and agriculture-focused venture capital firm, Cultivian Sandbox and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Cultivian Ventures – knows a good investment when he sees one.

With evokeAG. 2022 around the corner Andy reflects on the bounty of opportunities in food and agriculture coming out of Australia, the important connections he’s made on his past visits, like the 2020 evokeAG. Investor Dinner, and why co-investing with Australian founders, with local knowledge, has been critical for success.

Here he shares his experiences and advice for startups seeking to stand out from the pack, with our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward. We hope you enjoy their conversation. 

This week we speak to renowned angel investors Rachael Neumann and Kylie Frazer who joined forces to launch Flying Fox Ventures. After meeting at an industry dinner three years ago, both agree it was professional love at first sight, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Flying Fox is an early-stage venture capital firm looking to back early-stage startups to help growth and scale – and for more than a year now, the duo has seen no shortage of capital available or amazing opportunities to back, despite the global pandemic.

Their high-conviction and diversified portfolio includes everything from sensor technology for preg-testing cattle to a non-alcoholic beer – but Kylie admits they have a ‘soft spot’ for agritech.
 
Our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward caught up with both Kylie and Rachael, to learn more about Flying Fox, what makes a great partnership and why timing is everything.

Plastic is a remarkable material, but the planetary impact has never truly been costed. While its indestructible makeup has served a multitude of benefits, it has simultaneously eroded the health of our environment.

An ambitious UK spinout, Xampla has developed a next-generation plant-based alternative to replace single-use plastics and microplastics. The best part is the plant-protein-based plastic is simply metabolised when it hits the ocean or soil, offering a much safer end-to-life story.

Xampla CEO, Simon Hombersley caught up with our evokeAG. contributor Casey Dunn to talk about plant protein production, circular economies and what it's like building a business for a post-plastic world in 2040. 

This week, we catch up and explore the collaboration between two agritech leaders; Phil Tickle, Co-Founder of Cibo Labs and David Smith, Co-Founder of Ceres Tag. 

The pair attended Beef Week 2021, where David officially launched Ceres Tag – the world’s first direct to satellite animal tracking and data platform. 

Since then, both companies have integrated their systems, to provide livestock farmers with valuable information on the health and location of animals, along with available pasture and feed in paddocks, an area that Cibo Labs specialises in.

As Phil says, “Collaboration is the key," when it comes to agritech adoption, in the way technology is being made and being delivered to the end-user.

Our regular evokeAG. contributor Judy Kennedy caught up with the pair to learn more about their partnership. Read the full story here.