The world’s first horticulture focused venture capital fund will offer up to $60 million to early-age startups, with the aim of accelerating innovative products and services
Horticulture has always been a key sector in Australia’s agricultural landscape but is struggling with a host of challenges that prove a threat to the industry.
According to grower-owned research and development corporation Hort Innovation, the production of horticultural products including fruits, vegetables, nuts and turf, is currently worth $16 billion annually, making it Australia’s third largest agricultural sector.
Representing 17 per cent of total farming output, Hort Innovation CEO Brett Fifield says horticultural production is enduring unprecedented challenges, such as a lack of skilled labour and its increasing cost, along with high production costs, as well as extreme weather impacts.
“On top of those challenges, Australia’s fruit and vegetable consumption dropped by up to 8 per cent to June 2023, compared to the year before,” he says.
To help combat these problems, Hort Innovation has partnered with Australian-headquartered investment firm Artesian, to launch the world’s first horticulture focused venture capital fund.
A non-levy co-investment fund of up to $60 million will be offered to high-growth and early-age startups, with the aim of accelerating innovative products and services from their infancy to ready for market.
“Hort Innovation has partnered with Artesian to build bigger, bolder investments in innovation and create a flexible investment framework to accelerate research and development,” Fifield says.
“By investing in startups, we are enabling fresh ideas, never-before-seen technologies, and new ways of thinking to make growing easier, more sustainable and cost-effective, and lift consumption.”
Artesian will manage the Hort Innovation Venture Fund, with initial investments in eligible businesses to be made over the next five years.
One of the key focus areas of the Hort Innovation Venture Fund will be increasing productivity, which will help growers to become more adaptable, resilient and financially stable.
This may be with artificial intelligence to predict what to do and when to do it, new automation options, or the use of satellite technology to guide decision-making.
Sustainability will also be a key focus, with the fund aiming to deliver innovations that growers can implement. One example posed by Hort Innovation is enhancing monitoring capabilities to optimise water use and viable options to reduce chemical use.
With Australia’s fruit and vegetable consumption declining, another aim will be to drive demand back up and meet changing consumer preferences, to encourage healthy living.
Breeding produce that is nutrient dense, has a longer shelf life and is more aesthetically pleasing could be a solution.
Increasing the workforce of the horticultural industry will also be integral, with the fund focusing on opportunities to upskill existing industry participants and expand local career opportunities, particularly in the science and technology areas.
The Hort Innovation Venture Fund is the first fund to be rolled out through Hort Innovation Frontiers – a program dedicated to seizing big opportunities and developing solutions to horticulture’s major challenges.
Launched in June, the dedicated co-investment program will invest up to $500 million over the next 10 years.
“The frontiers project is a bold step for Australian horticulture and Hort Innovation, and we’re doing it to secure the future of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and turf, for not only the growers, but also delivering value to consumers and the rural and regional communities that we support,” Fifield says.
“Our Hort Innovation Frontiers Venture Fund teams up with the brightest minds internationally, linking them with the challenges that our industry faces to ensure that we have the innovation that will invest in a future for horticulture, not just today, but over the next decade and beyond.
“Australian horticulture plays a critical role to ensure that every Australian has great nutrition, so this venture capital fund will focus on how consumers are responding, and will ensure that we get fruit and vegetables onto the plates of Australians every single day.”
Macadamia grower and founder of Fitzroy River Plantation, Henrik Christiansen, says the new structure is valuable for growers to provide feedback on what solutions can be ramped up for commercialisation.
“The Frontiers program provides the framework and the rigour for innovation to come into our businesses,” he says.
“The great thing about Hort Innovation is that they have access to a lot of growers, so from a tech developer or innovation developers’ point of view, that’s a massive part of being able to get their technology on farm and proving it suits the environment.”
Singaporean technology company Polybee is already reaping the benefits of a partnership with Hort Innovation, trialling its product with Australian growers and researchers.
It has developed microdrones that could solve the issue of traditional pollinator bees being reluctant to pollinate in glasshouse environments, thus requiring pollination by hand.
This innovative product pollinates plants using the wind from small inbuilt fans and operates 24/7, automatically returning to a dock to recharge when required. This can reduce the labour costs and lack of efficiency associated with hand pollination.
One piece of technology that has already been implemented on-farm and is changing the way one growing business farms is the Carbon Robotics Laserweeder.
Victoria’s Tripod Farmers has been using the artificial intelligence-powered implement on the back of one of its tractors, to identify weeds that human eyes can’t see, and eradicate them before they grow.
It has an array of 30 high powered CO2 lasers that zaps the weeds and stops them getting to the reproductive stage.
“Technology like the laser weeder here is the future of farming,” Tripod Farmers’ Simon Raj says.
“There’s always going to be a balance of technology and human intervention, and they’ve got to work together.”
For more information on the Frontiers project and the Hort Innovation Venture Fund, visit horticulture.com.au/hort-innovation/our-work/frontiers/