Venture capital funds manager Artesian and grower-owned research and development corporation Hort Innovation have joined forces to launch a $60 million horticultural sector investment fund.
The Hort Innovation Venture Fund will invest in up to 30 agricultural technology start-ups in Australia and internationally. The fund will make investments from pre-seed stage through to Series A rounds in areas such as automation and robotics, smart irrigation, plant breeding and biotechnology.
Hort Innovation is contributing $24 million to the fund with Artesian providing the rest from its limited partner (LP) investors. It is expected the fund will make initial investments in the range $250,000 to $3 million.
While Hort Innovation focuses on developing innovation that will boost Australia’s $16.3 billion a year horticulture sector, it recognises that this may come from around the world and is actively seeking ideas from overseas. Hort Innovation’s head of investment growth and commercial Jesse Reader was among a delegation of Australian agriculture executives who attended the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London in early October where international innovations were presented. The delegation was led by Artesian.
Artesian’s senior manager agrifood Victoria Prowse, says the firm provides more than just fund management expertise in the agriculture and horticulture sectors.
“Artesian is a sector-focused venture capital firm with a key specialisation in agrifood,” she said. “Our unique venture-capital-as-a-service platform (VCaaS) enables government organisations, industry groups corporations and research institutes to leverage the financial and strategic returns of high-growth start-ups,”
The first VCaaS project, the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s GrainInnovate venture fund was launched in 2018.
Hort Innovation chief executive Brett Fifield said he believes the new fund will make it possible to look beyond horticulture for innovations that could assist the sector.
“Not only in agriculture, but are there medical innovations that we could apply to Australian horticulture? Are there innovations in other parts of the world that we can fast-track?” he said.
“We’re taking bigger swings through the venture fund, we’ll have a higher appetite for risk, and hopefully that will return a higher reward for industry.”
Fifield said Hort was already in discussions with international robotics experts who might provide innovations in field preparation and harvesting.
Artesian chief executive Jeremy Colless said the fund was first of its kind and was a “significant milestone” for the horticulture sector.
Image: Investment and agriculture sector executives Rob Williams, Artesian; Kevin Camphuis, Shakeup Factory; Jesse Reader, Hort Innovation; Fernando Felquer, Grains Research and Development Corporation; Victoria Prowse, Artesian; Will Smith, Artesian; Jordan Jeffery, GrainCorp; at a recent event.