#Agrifood startups

With the right intellectual property (IP) strategy, your smart new ideas and innovations in the agritech space can become powerful tools for growth, profitability, and industry leadership. Chris Bird, Principal, FPA Patent Attorneys shares the key steps to spotting your next big agritech breakthrough and starting the journey of turning it into an asset for your business.

In February 2024 David Smith and I announced a collaboration aimed at helping producers manage their grazing enterprise to build soil carbon. David is Co-Founder and CEO of Queensland-based Ceres Tag – pioneer of the world's first direct-to-satellite animal monitoring platform. And I am the Founder and MD of AgriProve, Australia’s largest soiltech carbon developer. 
We call it ‘Tags for Tonnes’ – and since launch, early adopters have provided feedback on the insights they’ve gathered, from mustering efficiency and stock theft reporting, to informed grazing rotations for land utilisation.  

With applications for the 2025 evoke^AG. Startup Program opening in September, we’re checking back in with past participants to find out where they are now – and what better place to start than our inaugural 2019 cohort?
In this final article of our series, evoke^AG. contributor Casey Dunn sat down with Hargol FoodTech founder and CEO, Dror Tamir, to hear why the Israeli innovator thinks locust protein is the B2B ingredient food manufacturers have been waiting for.
And how inadvertently reviving a 2,000-year-old tradition has unlocked a loyal B2C market, too.

Eighty-eight per cent of agrifood tech and innovation startups inhouse their grant writing. That may work when you’re first starting out, but you’ll likely quickly outgrow the late nights pulling an application together only to find you weren’t competitive. Done poorly, they’re a huge time drain. Camilla Roberts, CEO, SCALE IMPACT, shares how to tackle grant applications efficiently with greater chances of securing money fast.

So, you’ve identified that you have a smart new idea in the agritech space, and you want legal protection to stop others ‘trespassing on your territory’. Chris Bird, Principal, FPA Patent Attorneys breaks down the patent application process and how to protect your agritech innovation through a patent.

With applications for the 2025 evoke^AG. Startup Program opening in September, we’re catching up with past participants to find out where they are now – and what better place to start than our inaugural 2019 cohort?
In this second article of our series, evoke^AG. contributor Casey Dunn chatted with Farmwall Co-Founders Geert Hendrix and Indiana Rhind to hear how their social enterprise is using indoor farming to enhance corporate wellbeing.
And why – as we head towards 2030 – Farmwall is a compelling solution for corporations needing to make real impact on scope 3 emissions.

This week we bring you our evoke^AG. 2024 series with Olympia Yarger and Sally-Ann Williams joining our contributor Jayne Cuddihy in conversation, exploring everything from the deep tech sector in Australia, to the realities of being a female founder.

The self-described ‘spaceship of the cultured meat industry,’ Australia’s Vow has become only the third company in the world to bring a cell-based meat product to market. Its cultured quail has received the green light from Singapore’s food regulator, whetting the appetite of the world’s culinary elite.
Vow Founder and CEO George Peppou explains how the company based in Alexandria, New South Wales, went from founding to first sales in just five years – an unrivalled achievement in a segment where many spaceships crash back to earth.

With more applications than ever before, it’ll be a nail-biting, whip cracking, nerve wracking time when the 2024 evoke^AG. Pitch in the Paddock Competition fires up next month at Beef2024. Get to know the eight visionaries and innovators who will be going head-to-head in Rockhampton, Queensland.

Water. Soil. Nutrients. Climate. All critical components of a successful farming enterprise. But is there any component more fundamental than trust; that fragile commodity which we take for granted when we’ve got it – but find impossible to ignore when it’s lost.
But what exactly is trust, and how can agrifood producers not only build trust – but protect it?

With all the ideas, money and power in the world, how does Australia use its exceptional edge to be a global leader in agricultural production and sustainability? Two leaders of the Australian agritech scene – Justin Webb and Olympia Yarger – share their thoughts in a colourful debate.

She is a renegade founder transforming food waste management one maggot at time. He is a Harvard and Oxford Scholar, and ex-international rower. But are their views on what it will take to accelerate the Australian agrifood tech and innovation landscape as different as their CVs?