evokeAG. connections build powerful partnerships for CommBank
AgriFutures evokeAG. is the premier event on the Australian agrifood tech and innovation calendar – a natural match for Australia’s biggest bank, CommBank, which came on board as a silver partner for its 2023 and 2024 events.
The bank has been delighted with the results of their involvement, which has been the catalyst for at least two major partnerships with Australian agritech startups. As agriculture moves towards emissions targets, these collaborations will help customers meet the challenge of accessing and interpreting their on-farm data to measure progress and demonstrate sustainability credentials.
Hamish Munro, Founder, Pairtree Intelligence. Image | Rachael Lenehan Photography.
Through its participation in evokeAG. 2023, CommBank General Manager Agribusiness, Natasha Greenwood and her team encountered Ruminati and Pairtree Intelligence (Pairtree). The bank has since gone on to create programs with both that will help their agribusiness customers access and utilise data in a more sophisticated way.
Both data management platforms, Ruminati helps farmers understand their baseline emissions and model potential abatement actions, while Pairtree enables farmers to bring multiple data sources into a single dashboard.
Natasha Greenwood, General Manager of Agribusiness at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, at evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2024.
“We met these businesses at AgriFutures evokeAG., and a year later, we’ve been able to invest in a partnership with Pairtree to develop solutions which might simplify data management for our customers, and we’ve run a pilot with Ruminati for farmers across three states,” Natasha said.
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“Our customers tell us they want tools to support them in building resilience, lifting productivity, and enabling them to demonstrate their sustainability credentials. These partnerships will help us deliver those tools.”
Ruminati partnership unlocks emissions insights for customers
Ruminati Co-Founder Bobby Miller recognised the industry was moving towards setting targets to reduce emissions in both the supply chain and at the farm gate, but there was a bottleneck and no seamless platforms to measure and report on-farm emissions.
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“We thought, how can we report on the reductions in emissions if we’re not measuring them in the first place?” Bobby said.
“Emissions measurement is going to become business as usual.
“We don’t want emissions measurement to become another part of the compliance burden for the industry.”
Ruminati had some early conversations with CommBank about its minimum viable product before meeting in person for the first time at evokeAG. 2023.
“We got great feedback from CommBank that this tool would help them solve a problem, and that gave us the confidence to keep working on it.”
Following a successful trial, CommBank will now offer Ruminati PRIME, which includes an emissions calculator and scenario planner, on an opt-in basis to its agribusiness customers.
Natasha said enabling farmers to understand their emissions baseline opens up conversation around what activities can be considered, the investment required and return of those activities, and how the bank can help finance them.
“The potential for impact is great, as strategies around herd management, grazing and pasture management practices, increasing shelter belts, and reduced input usage and management are aligned with improving both the economic and environmental outcomes for Australian farmers,” she said.
Pairtree collaboration supports deeper relationships
Having attended multiple evokeAG. events, Pairtree Founder Hamish Munro returns year-on-year and is a strong advocate for it being “the event” where meaningful connections are made.
“We met Syngenta at the first evokeAG. in 2019 and they’ve now invested in us. At evokeAG. 2023 we connected with CommBank in Startup Alley who we’ve since established a partnership with and have secured investment via its venture fund x15ventures.
Hamish Munro, Pairtree, at evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2024.
According to Natasha, Pairtree addresses a significant challenge for farmers, and its customers, by combining data from previously incompatible sources to provide reporting and insights to agribusinesses, government and researchers.
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Creating valuable connections for customers and end users
Natasha said the Pairtree and Ruminati partnerships are powerful examples of the way CommBank is supporting farmers through a critical transition.
“Our goal is to help equip customers with access to tools and resources that can help them make informed decisions,” she said.
“Through evokeAG. we’ve established some amazing relationships, deepened others and come up with solutions for industry.”
Keen to be involved in evokeAG. 2025? View the 2025 prospectus here or contact General Manager, Global Innovations Network Harriet Mellish [email protected] to discuss partnership opportunities for the upcoming event.
Tickets are now on sale for evokeAG. 2025 to be held on 18-19 February 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland. Following a sell-out event in 2024 we are encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early.
We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane for evokeAG. 2025. In the meantime, catch up on the other conversations about sustainability, climate resilience and the role of agtech in meeting those challenges from here.