Massive thanks to Peter Wren-Hilton, Executive Director of AgritechNew Zealand, and Jacqui Wren-Hilton, Projects Director of Agritech New Zealand, whose strong connection with the startup and investment sector in the Silicon Valley has opened up many opportunities for NZ's agritech sector.
Agritech New Zealand is working collaboratively to connect everything and everyone in NZ Agritech into a coherent community supporting the growth of Agritech earnings, with aspiration for NZ’s Agritech sector to be a global leader in science,
technology and innovation, delivering commercial outcomes for the global
primary sector.
NZ has become the first ‘Country Partner’ of Farm2050, the global collective of major venture capital firms and international agribusinesses seeking investment into, and partnerships with, disruptive New Zealand agritech businesses.
Peter highlighted some current success stories such as how NZ firm Robotics Plus attracted investment from global giant Yamaha, through their participation in the 2016 Agritech Silicon Valley Mission. They are now an alumni of the last 3 missions, teaching other companies about their US experiences, and working alongside TracMap, AGBOX, and Autogrow who are all scaling their business off-shore and sharing their journey’s!
New Zealand is also hoping to sign a major strategic partnership with Western Growers, the largest network of fresh produce farmers & growers in North America, producing 50% of all fresh vegetables, 50% of all fresh fruit and 65% of all organics.
Peter also covered evokeAG, the Trans-Tasman agritech conference, taking place in Melbourne, 19-20 February 2019, and Fieldays 2019.
For more info on how you can be part of the AgritechNZ network, please visit https://agritechnz.org.nz/.
