September 28, 2018

Indian global startup catalyst T-Hub has partnered with Australia’s Beanstalk AgTech, a venture builder targeting the scaling of high-growth potential agtech startups, for the Australia-India AgTech Market Access Platform.

Launching at the beginning of 2019, the program, which is sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, will convene at Beanstalk Labs in Melbourne, and in India, and will select 12 ‘best in class’ agtech startups in both countries working to solve critical agricultural challenges facing both countries.

As the first bilateral program of its kind between the two countries, the Australia-India AgTech Market Access Program will provide a tailored and structured channel for international growth for agtech startups.

“We look forward to growing Victoria’s engagement with T-Hub, starting with the wonderful exchange that will come through the T-Hub/Beanstalk collaboration,” said Her Excellency Linda Dessau AC, Governor of Victoria. “Victoria is the AgTech hub of Australia and the opportunity to lift productivity in the agricultural sector through technology can bring benefits to farmers in India, Australia and around the world.”

The Value of Collaboration

India seems to take note of the value in partnering with other countries for the mutual advancement of agtech technology. Last year, during a visit to Israel by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two countries announced the launch of the Israel India Innovation Initiative Fund (I4F) – an investment vehicle designed to focus on mutually beneficial investments in sectors ranging from agriculture to water to space.

Under the terms of the fund, each country has agreed to commit $4 million per year for five years, for a total corpus of $40 million.

Both Israel and India bring a need to the table that can prove beneficial to the other. Israel’s deep expertise as a leader in agtech innovation can help India advance its Make in India initiative, while India has provided Israeli agtech startups with a ‘field trial market’ for lack of a better term.

Much the same could be said about a tie-in with Australia. In India, opportunities for agtech are in the offing, as 70 percent of the country is expected to have broadband coverage by 2020, according to the Scott Strand, with Dalberg Global Development Advisors, who spoke at GAI AgTech Week 2017.

Targeted markets for agtech development include India, Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, South Africa, and Argentina. And despite the difficulty in capturing value in these markets, there are largely untapped opportunities through the spread of connectivity and the emergence of more aggregators, which give the power of numbers to poor farmers.

-Lynda Kiernan