Farmers2Founders, Rocket Seeder and SproutX will each receive $600,000 to run pre-accelerator programs, to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the skills to turn an idea into a business.
The $600,000 grants are part of the Victorian AgTech Entrepreneurs Initiative - LaunchVic's $2.2 million partnership with Agriculture Victoria announced in September last year.
LaunchVic chief executive officer, Dr Kate Cornick, said the initiative was designed to help scale existing on-farm ideas and draw more innovators to agriculture - one of the state's largest export sectors.
"Victoria is Australia's largest agriculture producer by value, but our research shows the AgTech sector remains small and underdeveloped, with less than 40 AgTech startups active across the state," Dr Cornick said.
Farmers2Founders, a specialist agrifood tech service provider, will run its Hatch Ideas Pre-Accelerator and a self-paced Online Journey Starter Program that can reach founders in any pocket of regional Victoria, among other initiatives.
Rocket Seeder will assemble teams of entrepreneurs and researchers to solve some of regional Victoria's biggest challenges with their new AgTech Seeds Pre-Accelerator Program, aiming to bridge the gap between the agricultural industry and research.
SproutX will join forces with The University of Melbourne to take aspiring founders through The Business of Agriculture, a new program designed to support non-traditional participants in Victoria's startup ecosystem, like farmers or regional Victorian high school graduates.
People interested in taking part in the pre-accelerator programs can sign up for a free information session run by LaunchVic here: https://launchvic.org/general/agtech-events
