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Victorian agtech startups have entry to a brand new funding supply with LaunchVic backing a brand new $1 million angel sidecar fund backed by Agriculture Victoria.
The Hugh Victor McKay Fund is called in honour of the inventor who patented the mix harvester within the Eighteen Eighties, one of the vital necessary agricultural improvements in latest historical past.
The fund is hoping to again at the very least 5 early-stage startups over the following 12 months, investing between $100,000 and $200,000 in each.
The mannequin is predicated on LaunchVic’s pioneering $2.5 million Alice Anderson Fund, which started in mid-2021, and can co-invest with personal sector buyers, who will match the federal government contribution by a minimal of two:1 to leverage the capital raised.
The Alice Anderson Fund backed 11 female-led startups in its first 12 months.
Scale Buyers cofounder Susan Oliver, who additionally chairs the Alice Anderson fund, will chair the agtech sidecar fund’s funding committee, joined by shilo.folks cofounder Ilona Charles, Aultmore director Amanda Derham and rural VC Tenacious Ventures cofounder Matthew Pryor. They may meet bi-monthly to overview functions.
Pryor mentioned the fund would supply essential help for founders constructing the way forward for on-farm productiveness and sustainability.
“Early-stage ventures in agtech are sometimes working with {hardware} and deep tech. These could be important improvements in agrifood transition, since you may’t eat software program,” he mentioned
“The early phases of progress could be extra capital intensive for these startups, so further leverage on early capital could be very catalytic.”
LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick urged the state’s agtech sector to reap the benefits of the array of help on provide, with the organisation additionally providing equity-free $50,000 grants to aspiring agtech founders.
The primary seven grant recipients are: AEI, Boodbox, AirAgri, Ambit Robotics, Farmo, Mobble and Rubens Applied sciences
“Our work with Agriculture Victoria is especially thrilling within the holistic help we’re providing founders all through their progress journeys,” Dr Cornick mentioned.
“Aspiring founders can undertake pre-accelerator applications to check their startup concepts, get hold of a grant to construct their functionality and entry seed funding when able to scale.”
Particulars on the fund and grant program can be found at launchvic.org/agtech
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