Accelerator

BeanstalkAgTech is building a $10 million venture studio to back nearly 100 startups focused on drought resilience

- June 27, 2024 2 MIN READ
Photo: AdobeStock

Food and agriculture advisory and venture firm Beanstalk AgTech has launched a venture program to support researchers and entrepreneurs build new agtech products and services for farmers.

The $10 million project is working towards building the world’s first venture studio for drought resilience, supported by the federal government’s Future Drought Fund. Expressions of interest for  founders keen to be involved open until July 12.

Beanstalk Agtech director Cal Archibald said they will take eight startups to market and provide hands-on commercialisation support for almost 90 others over two years.

The eight chosen startups will receive 12 months of hands-on support from the specialist team of venture builders to pressure test their solutions in real time, refine them, and scale, and will be matched with an experienced cofounder for commercialisation and launch.

They’ll score up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding too.

“Australian agriculture faces some of the most extreme drought conditions in the world, and the industry here is world leading. Our farmers and researchers have always found a way to survive and to thrive in an extreme climate,” he said.

Partnership with the Future Drought Fund allows us to offer unprecedented support for researchers and innovators, and to launch new drought resilience solutions that will help Australian farmers and share our knowledge with the world.

Archibald said the program is free for those selected.

Our focus is clear – we are here to work with farmers and industry to define the problems that they need better tools to solve, and to capitalise on our national legacy of drought resilience and expertise. We have built a world-class team of expert venture builders to roll up their sleeves with the innovators we are recruiting to make this a reality,

 Jeremy Youker, head of venture building at the venture studio said that over the next two years, 96 participants will engage in a 90-day program, with the top eight transformative solutions receiving one year of dedicated support to launch at a global scale.

“Launching new ventures is hard. Especially in agriculture, with so many different stakeholders, huge distances, and adversity in the climate. It can rarely ever feel like we are working on the same problems, or heading in the same direction together,” he said.

With the Australian government’s focus on drought resilience in the coming years, we anticipate an influx of innovations looking for support and investment. Our goal is to get the IP holders, the customers, the supply chain, and the investors all heading in the same direction. We want to chart a course towards the most impactful solutions for Australian farmers.” 

The first cohort starts in August 2024.

Apply here by July 12.