Agtech innovation initiatives

The Business Development team at GRDC manages a number of Agtech Innovation initiatives. GRDC’s innovation strategy is aimed to deliver more impact to grower profitability through improved targeting and support of the ag-tech start-up innovation ecosystem. These programs aim to address different unmet needs in the innovation process, as shown below.

GRDC Innovation Chart

Image of Grain Innovate logo 

The $50 million GrainInnovate fund established by GRDC and Artesian invests in startups to help drive the future profitability and sustainability of Australia's grain growers.
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The Fund invests from seed to growth stage in startups from Australia, and globally, that fit the fund's investment mandate, which is based on the GRDC's 2018-23 RD&E Plan and Key Investment Targets.

The fund was launched in February 2019 and has made 9 investments to date, as shown below.

GrainInnovate portfolio

Additional information about the fund and investee companies can be found on the GrainInnovate website.

Image of Growers as Innovators 

The Growers as Innovators program aims to support innovative growers to market-test their ideas and innovations and potentially bring them to market. The program is currently being run by Farmers2Funders as a cross-RDC initiative.

Find out more

Image of accelerator program 

The GRDC Accelerator program seeks non-exclusive partnerships with the Agtech accelerator capacity already existing in Australia.

To date, GRDC has partnered with SproutX and Sparklabs Cultiv8 for the delivery of these programs.

Proposals from eligible accelerator program providers are encouraged on an ongoing basis. Find out more.

Please contact the Business Development team on busdev@grdc.com.au for more information on these programs.

GRDC Launches AgTech Venture Capital Fund