AgTech Innovators season 3

Speaker 1:

Welcome to AgTech Innovators, keeping you up to date with information from Agriculture Victoria.

Drew Radford:

The AgTech sector encompasses researchers, start-ups, and investors, just to name a few. They're all crucial parts of a complex global innovation network. However, for that network to successfully meet the challenges of feeding the world, it needs to be connected.

G'day, I'm Drew Radford and growAG is focused on pulling the threads of that network together. Their role is connecting the agrifood innovation community across Asia Pacific and around the world. Arianna Sippel is senior manager with growAG, and to discuss how they do that, she joins me for this AgTech Innovators podcast. Thanks for your time.

Arianna Sippel:

Thank you very much, Drew.

Drew Radford:

Arianna, you've had quite a long background in terms of AgTech. In fact, you have a global perspective with it because I understand your career, well, didn't quite start with, but you spent some time with Austrade as part of their global AgTech strategy.

Arianna Sippel:

Yes, I was privileged enough to be working with Austrade in the agribusiness and food sector when agritech and that innovation and the opportunities around that really started to emerge here in Australia. And so many really interesting companies coming through and so much research from the different research organisations across Australia, and also real interest in what was coming out of Australia from different markets around the world. And so an opportunity to really help draw those different groups together and help try and set up the Australian ecosystem to be a really thriving successful ecosystem and industry in its own right.

Drew Radford:

You're certainly walking the talk there because your role now is with AgriFutures. For those unfamiliar, what's AgriFutures do?

Arianna Sippel:

So AgriFutures is one of the 15 Research Development Corporations (RDCs) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) (Research and Development Corporation) that exists in Australia, and so what most of us do is we take levies from producers, so we match that with federal government funding and the RDCs invest that on behalf of those industries to really help those agricultural industries thrive and grow and be successful. Here in Australia, we export around two-thirds of what we produce, so that innovative edge is really important for helping us both be productive, competitive, and sustainable as climates and environments change over time.

Drew Radford:

Well, you've taken, I would argue, the next step in that in terms of being really at the pointy end, because your role is with growAG. How's that different? What's that specific focus there?
Arianna Sippel:It's part of AgriFuture's focus on global innovation networks and how we can really supercharge those and help ensure that Australia is both a leader in accessing as well as adopting, developing, and exporting agrifood technologies and innovation. You might say, "Well, why are we doing this?" Because we see that that really healthy, thriving ecosystem is really key to having Australian producers be able to have early access to new innovations and the right innovations for them, and having that capacity here in Australia to be able to really deliver those things to producers so that they can be really successful.

Drew Radford:

You said a couple of key words there. You said ecosystem and you also said network, and I go onto your website and those terms draw the threads together for me because I see just all these amazing stories, like the six big things that are going to come towards us that are going to change agriculture is one of the stories, and they've got sub stories under there, but I'm looking at it and going, they're great stories, but I'm working out also that you're pulling the threads together there. You're saying there's researchers, there's investors, there's technologies. Is that what's going on? You're trying to collate all of this under one roof?

Arianna Sippel:

Absolutely. We're trying to pull all those threads together so that it's really easy for anyone, whether they're in Victoria or in Australia or around the world, to be able to find and connect with relevant groups here in Australia and relevant opportunities. And so there's around 3,000 research opportunities that you can jump into and see, well, who has that expertise if I wanted to reach out and connect and collaborate? You can see what are some of those opportunities that are coming through, and so if you're a startup, you might see some research projects you can tap into. You might see some other startups who are doing something interesting that's complimentary to your solution and you can reach out and then go and partner, and at the end of the day, deliver a package solution to producers or other users that will be more attractive and more compelling because it's easier to digest. If you're a researcher, you can find those research collaboration opportunities.

If you're a corporate, or an investor, or a scale-up perhaps, you can see, what are the things that I could be investing in? What are those groups at an early stage and be able to reach out. What are those innovations that, again, I can pull through into my business or I can connect to my investee companies as well. How do we make it easy for people to do that? The last kind of offer, and this is probably the most powerful, I think, is for those groups who are active in the ecosystem, they can also put up their own opportunity. So they can say, "This is what I'm seeking, this is who I'm seeking to do that with, and this is what I see them doing with that." So it might be, "I'm start-up. I'm seeking strategic partners. I'm seeking investors. This is what those groups look like, and here's a little bit about my journey to date, what I'm offering, the traction I've had, and how I'd like to collaborate and work with you."

Drew Radford:

Okay. Well, using that example then, how does somebody do that? Is that like a message board space that you've got in under those plethora of stories, or is it a breakout area?
Arianna Sippel:So if people jump on the site, growag.com, it's a really easy to search website. So there's a search bar at the top so you can explore away and see what's on there. You can get a sense of the types of opportunities and the types of calls that people make. Also on the top right-hand side of the platform, there's another tab that says Submit. So if you jump onto Submit, you can then submit your own profile, you can submit an opportunity, and that will come through to us and we'll reach out and have a chat with you about, "Can we tweak a little bit?" If you'd rather have a conversation first, you can always send through a general inquiry,,,,, and we'll set up a time. We've got a live concierge that sits behind the platform that helps people to really drill down and understand how can they use it, how can they get the most out of it.

Drew Radford:

What do you see as some of the biggest challenges and opportunities startups face in the Victorian AgTech industry and the industry as a whole?

Arianna Sippel:

One of the really obvious ones that is really front and centre for me is, how do you go beyond your immediate networks if you're wanting to do customer discovery and market validation, or if you're wanting to say, identify some of those strategic partners that can help you scale. It might be, how do I take my idea or my tech from ideas accelerator or perhaps from a lab, to being something that I can actually see, this is how I'm going to transform that idea, that piece of tech into something in field or in market. And so finding those partners that can help you sanity check and future-proof and think about, what's the right business model? Is this viable? Who might be my end customer? All those key ideas, you can find those partners through the platform.
You can also raise capital. You can find research collaborators or complementary solutions. You can also say, "Hey, I'm wanting to go global. I'm wanting to find potential partners in this particular market or that particular market." And through the platform, we have around 16,000 subscribers. We send out opportunity updates every fortnight so people can see what are those new opportunities coming through, and they can jump on and put an inquiry in about those ones that they're really interested in. So that's certainly one of the big challenges I see, how to go beyond your immediate networks and validate what you're thinking about and find those potential partners. People often say you've got to kiss a few frogs along the way, but beyond your immediate pond, how do you find the lakes and the oceans and how do you navigate some of those things?

One of the other things I think is, if you're a start-up, really tying down the detail around your business model can be just as important as your technology. Getting to the bones of who is actually your customer, who is going to be willing to pay for what you're doing, and what's your path to market there is really key. Obviously, it's also, what is your technology or service or solution, what's your offer around that, and really understanding what's interesting or differentiating about what you are offering. And what's your hook? What's your value proposition to those customers? But certainly I think that business model question is a really important one for groups to nail.

Drew Radford:

You deal with the nation, but from a Victorian perspective, in your experience, what are the most promising areas within the Victorian AgTech sector that you see?

Arianna Sippel:

Look, I will give probably a little bit of an agnostic view here. It's not a particular sector, but what are the solutions that are going to solve big, chunky problems that Victoria, that Australia, that the world are grappling with at the moment? So one of those is a lot around, how do you manage product shelf life? How do you deal with waste and how can you create more value and help everyone on the supply chain realise more value? So whether that solution's looking at, say, extending shelf life or valorising byproduct streams.

So if you are producing almonds or you're producing hazelnuts, what have you, what do you do with the shell? How do you add value there? If you are producing a leafy vegetable, there's a certain piece that goes to market and is sold and there's a whole lot of other green biomass that is essentially waste. So what's the best way of getting some value from that? If you're a rice producer, what do you do with the rice straw? You've harvested the rice, but can you do something else with the rice straw? So the whole lot of different opportunities there that I think are really interesting about how we create more value and more sustainability all the way along the supply chain.

Couple of those other really big, chunky issues that everyone grapples with, workforce. Solutions that help producers focus their workforce on more complex tasks or that reduce work health and safety issues, they're really key and certainly help us make the most of our workforce so that we end up with higher-value products at the end of the day and more sustainable business models as well.

I think the other thing that we need to be thinking about is solutions that help producers manage biosecurity and manage pest and disease and retain market access at the same time. So there's a lot of noise in the media around different chemicals or different families of the chemicals having short market access lives might be the way of putting it, but what's next? What are those alternate biologicals or integrated pest management solutions that people might be able to take on? How do we validate those? How do we trial those, and how do we find things that are fit for us here, whether in Victoria or Australia more broadly?

Drew Radford:

Do you have three tips for startups that you'd like to share?

Arianna Sippel:

Yeah, I've already talked about the business model piece. It really is such an important piece around thinking about your business and who is your business targeting, and what does that then mean about how you structure your business, and who do you go and target, and what kind of support might you need to have. So I think that business model piece and understanding who your customer is so important.

The other two tips I'd have is when you're thinking about your competitive landscape, don't just think about your direct competitors. Try and think really laterally around, what are the other solutions? What are the other services? What are the other factors that someone thinking about whether they might use my solution or whether my solution is relevant or interesting? What are the other things that are going to be on their plate that they're going to be thinking about, because that is who you're going to compete against. It's a bit like if you're a David Jones or a Myer or whatever. Your competitors are not just each other. They're small specialty shops, they're online sales. It's a much broader piece. Or it's also what a different sentiments around consumer spending and so on.

Third tip would be understand what you can tap into without giving equity away. As a startup, you really need to retain enough skin in the game that you and your team are still motivated to get up and go for it each and every day. It can be a really hard long slog, so take a look at what some of those different government and ecosystem supports are that are available. There's some really great programs, particularly in Victoria. If you take a look at, say, the LaunchVic programs, many of those are in partnership with AgVic, but there's also some industry agnostic ones that you might want to take a look at. Breakthrough Victoria as well have some different models that look to see what's available. Similarly, there's a whole lot of different accelerators, but there's also a whole lot of regional support mechanisms that can really help you to get further and figure out more about what you need to do to structure your business and to advance your technology or solution that can get you further.

If you're still in the research phase, if you have someone in your team who's involved with a research organisation, you can look at things like CSIRO's On Prime Accelerator, for instance, that really helps you develop some of those tools and helps connect you into different networks. So, take a look at all those sorts of things. What can you tap into that's not going to reduce your equity, that can get you a little bit further and extend those relationships and those connections as well.

Drew Radford:

Arianna, what do you see are the challenges and opportunities for investors in the future?
Arianna Sippel:There's a couple of things for investors in the future, other than try to keep an eye on the local and global pulse in terms of where there's still value as opposed to different segments getting over-hyped in different spots. But I think certainly for investors being able to be connected to their peers, both locally, whether that's in Melbourne, say, or in Victoria or in Australia, or across different markets. So perhaps between Australia and New Zealand, Australia and US, Australia, Singapore, etc. How do we make that easier that people can find those good partners and those partners that they can collaborate with to look at and then help their investees to go further and to really be able to scale? Because I do think particularly for Australian startups, often they will need to look to go global if they're going to really thrive and really be competitive.

So for investors, how do you help your startups do that? How do you also educate the startups and the researchers coming through? And look, this is probably one that's a little bit for those accelerators and different groups out there, but also at the end of the day for investors. How do you help educate the startups and the research groups that are coming through to understand what VC has to offer or your angel group or your corporate VC or your family office or whatever.

Because they all come with different benefits or different attributes and different opportunity costs, so it's really about finding the match for someone who's going to be on the same wavelength and receptive to the opportunities that you can provide. So how do we have that happen more broadly across the ecosystem?

Drew Radford:

I would argue, Arianna, that you and the team at growAg are helping enormously make those matches, those collaborations all happen through the work that you do. Arianna Sippel, Senior manager with growAg, thanks for joining me for this AgTech Innovators podcast.

Arianna Sippel:

Thank you very much, Drew.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to AgTech Innovators. For more episodes in this series, find us and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment or rating, and share this series with your friends and family.

All information is accurate at the time of release. Contact Agriculture Victoria or your consultant before making any changes on-farm. This podcast was developed by Agriculture Victoria, authorised by the Victorian Government, Melbourne.