Agro Innovation Lab (AIL) selected the six best start-ups for this year’s acceleration programme

Thumbs up: For the six winning start-ups, the acceleration programme is now starting. With the support of BayWa AG and RWA and numerous mentors, they will further develop their business ideas over the coming five months.

The six best start-ups for 2017 have been decided

MUNICH, 16-Oct-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Agro Innovation Lab (AIL), a joint innovation platform of BayWa AG and RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG, has selected the six best start-ups for this year’s acceleration programme. In the coming five months, the young entrepreneurs will further develop the concepts they submitted. In doing so, they have access to the international network of BayWa and RWA. With 265 start-ups from 61 countries, this year’s round of applications was a major success.

“The acceleration programme of AIL is an important instrument to discover and help shape visionary innovation in agriculture”, explained Klaus Josef-Lutz, Managing Director of BayWa AG. He went on to describe how agriculture is going through a major change and is facing challenges, such as increasing digitalisation, a growing world population and climate change. “As a company, we therefore want to help develop and utilise innovative ideas for the benefit of our customers”, said Lutz. “Our objective is to be the first port of call in Europe for innovations from the agricultural sector. By participating in the acceleration programme, young entrepreneurs can make rapid progress”, said BayWa board member Roland Schuler during the official inauguration event of the “Agro Innovation Lab acceleration programme 2017” in Munich.

The start-ups selected for this year’s acceleration programme each follow very different approaches:

Agra2b from Germany developed an online marketplace for farmers and suppliers. This enables farmers to obtain and compare offers independent of time and location and thus organise their purchasing more efficiently than before.

With FarmHedge from Ireland, farmers can form purchasing and sales cooperatives. This online platform is used as an additional sales channel between the buyers and sellers of agricultural products.

BartsParts from the Netherlands enables dealers in agricultural technology to sell slow moving spare parts for agricultural machinery globally via an online platform. This opens up new markets in spare parts sales, especially for spare parts which have been stocked for some time.

DroneClouds from South Africa supports farmers with the aid of drone and satellite data for the early, area-precise detection of potential hazards presented by pests, plant diseases or supply shortages.

In real-time and with an accuracy of 98 percent. Livestock Technologies from South Korea can predict the health of cows and the ideal insemination time with the aid of sensor technology. The start-up developed a temperature and motion sensor, which is harmlessly introduced into the cow and remains in the rumen for up to seven years.

LivinFarms, a Chinese/Austrian cooperation, tackles protein production in the form of mealworm cultivation. With the reduction of available farmland, food and fodder production are in competition with each other. Insects may be an alternative to protein-rich fodder plants currently being cultivated.

In the coming five months the young entrepreneurs will further develop their business ideas. The acceleration programme offers, for example, intensive cooperation with external and internal mentors, specific specialist workshops, market and customer access opportunities and, where applicable, trials. The objective is to support the start-ups as well as possible in validating their business ideas in the market.

About Agro Innovation Lab GmbH
Agro Innovation Lab GmbH (AIL) is a joint innovation platform of BayWa AG and RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG based in Vienna. AIL has set itself the task of making new innovations accessible to the agricultural sector. Its activities are focused on the implementation of start-up acceleration programmes. In the process, young entrepreneurs are supported in the further development of their products and successful establishment in the market. After its major international success in 2016, AIL started a second programme round in April this year.

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SOURCE: BayWa