Judging by some of the news coverage, last week’s pitch night showcasing successful applicants to the SproutX agtech accelerator suggests that this will be a program worth watching. (Look out for the demo day later in the year…) With an initial cohort of 11 participants, this recent addition to Melbourne’s startup scene is showing there is an audience and a market for smart farming solutions. Founded by Findex and the National Farmers Federation, SproutX also enjoys support from Ruralco and Artesian, as well as the Victorian Government.

Given the number of pitches, my comments on each startup presentation are necessarily short:

AgriLedger

This project is driving social impact by focusing on farmers in the developing world. It offers a smart phone app that helps deliver products and services direct to farmers, such as solar power facilities and micro loans, and enables them to plan better and to share equipment with other local farmers. Currently active in Papua New Guinea, Kenya and Myanmar, AgriLedger has been supported by some high-profile NGOs and attracted some impressive backers and advocates.

However, the judges felt that the pitch didn’t contain enough of the story, or explain how it actually works.

Applant

With a tag line of “aTree in your home”, Applant has come up with a novel design for a vertical gardening system that uses aeroponics. The idea is to help people “grow more with less”, and to grow food where we live, work, eat and even play. With an underlying concept for modular food systems, Applant is about to launch a Kickstarter campaign.

The judges had hoped to learn more about the customer demand and the proposed
customer subscription model.

Bloomboxco

Delivering locally sourced and farm-fresh cut flowers direct to customers, my immediate thought was “flower miles”. Launching just recently with a monthly subscription model, Bloomboxco has already attracted around 35k followers on social media (mostly Pinterest). By its own admission, the service appeals mainly to women who enjoy contemporary design and lifestyle trends.

But the judges wanted to know what makes this business different: given that the current supply model for cut flowers is built on margin, how does Bloomboxco aim to compete?

Farmgate MSU

With their mobile slaughter unit (MSU), the team from Farmgate want to “open the gate to on-farm abattoirs”. Many farms do not have access to an abattoir thanks to industry consolidation and contraction. The MSU is designed to cut production costs, minimize animal stress, and reduce waste. While still relying on central butchery services, the MSU has the potential to add value, especially for premium products, as it can operate at smaller scale. Farmgate also benefits from having a team drawn from across the meat supply chain.

For the judges, the pitch could have done more to demonstrate the capability, and to explain what happens to waste and by-products.

Farmapp

Farmapp has developed a digitized and integrated pest management solution for greenhouse crops. Using data collected from various sensors and stored in the cloud, Farmapp uses visual analysis, helping farmers to reduce their use of pesticides and increase productivity. It is currently installed in 1200 greenhouses (mainly Columbia and Kenya).

The judges wondered about the competition, as they were aware of a number of other similar solutions.

iotag

This “fitbit for cattle” uses long-range GPS monitoring to track and manage livestock health. In addition to the setup costs for network base sensors, there is a monthly subscription fee to manage data.

There were no comments from the judges, apart from the representative from the farming community, who claimed to hate subscription services.

Smart-Bait

Smart-Bait uses sensors, cognitive APIs and programmed alerts to track feral animals. Current solutions (baiting, fencing, shooting) are either unreliable, inefficient, or non-selective. Instead, Smart-Bait is leveraging IoT and AI, and can be used offline giving further flexibility. Currently conducting farm trials, the founders say that there is government interest in the data.

For their part, the judges wanted to know if there were other applications for this technology – but more importantly, they wanted to know how it actually works.

Snaptrap

This product enables remote pest monitoring and control, especially fruit fly. It retrofits to existing systems, and has established a successful proof of concept. Snaptrap is targeting research, government and industry users, appealing to both growers and the bio-security market. Another subscription-based product, the founders claim there are many use cases, and the solution is scalable.

The judges asked about the data (what happens to it), and our farm rep again queried the use of a subscription model.

Thingc

With the goal of producing “intelligent orchestrated things”, Thingc aims to reduce the number of manual tasks and alleviate animal stress in livestock management. Using the notion of precision management, it takes data from monitoring sources and applies it yield forecasting.

The judges wanted to know “where’s the tech?”, who is the competition?, and what exactly is the end game?

TieUp Farming

TieUp uses an algo-based solution to compensate for the lack of data available for yield forecasting in horticulture. The data is being made available to farmers, industry and banks, using an aggregation of different technologies. The founders claim it to be both practical and customizable, while they see significant opportunities in South East Asia.

The judges wanted to know how it actually works, and to what degree it can support traceability of produce?

Water Save

As the name suggest, Water Save is designed to reduce water and power consumption on farms. With increased concerns about water efficiency and environmental impact of run-off on the Great Barrier Reef, Water Save uses existing irrigation monitoring systems (micro weather stations, sensors) and connects them into an integrated and networked solution. The system involves set up costs, hardware costs, and subscription fees, but a key goal is to reduce the use of fertilizers – creating both economic and environmental savings.

The judges wanted to know more about the solution for linking individual sensors, and whether it has the capability to monitor nitrates.

 

For most of these 3-minute pitches, the challenge was to tell enough of the “story” while still explaining how it works – and there was a sense that the audience understood the context as well as the problem, and probably didn’t need too much background explanation. Instead, they would have appreciated learning more about the technology and the potential to succeed – i.e, “why you?”.

Farmgate MSU was declared the winner by the judges, and voted the people’s choice by the audience.

Next week: ASIC updates – Sandbox and Crowdfunding (plus #FinTech hub)