Agro Innovation Lab GmbH nominated ten start-ups for this year’s acceleration programme

MUNICH, 16-Aug-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Agro Innovation Lab GmbH (AIL), a joint innovation platform spearheaded by BayWa AG and RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG, has nominated ten start-ups for this year’s acceleration programme. The best start-ups out of a total of 265 entries from 61 countries and their innovative product ideas, services and business models for the agricultural sector were selected during the initiative’s finalist days. Up to six of the ten finalists will participate in the five-month acceleration programme starting in autumn 2017.

Following the tremendous international interest seen in 2016, AIL kicked off the second round of the programme this April. The start-ups focus on issues such as agricultural technology, organic farming, agricultural commodities trading and food trends. Entries were received from countries such as the US, Germany, India, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Serbia and Nigeria.

A select group of the 265 entries were invited to Munich to present their ideas during the initiative’s finalist days from 9 to 12 July. The ten best start-ups will undergo an onboarding phase this summer. The six best will begin the five-month acceleration programme in September, which offers participants access to BayWa and RWA’s international network, support in the development of the concepts they submitted and much more.

The selected business models focus on a wide range of different agricultural issues, from technologies for livestock farming and measures for the targeted use of operating resources to innovative agricultural platforms. For example, one of the start-ups is working on implanting high-tech capsules into cows’ rumens to obtain data about the animals’ health and the optimal point in time for insemination. Other projects focus on identifying insects using laser technology and making unfruitful, sandy soil productive through the use of nanoclay.

“We are proud that Agro Innovation Lab’s 2017 programme has once again attracted such widespread international attention. This year, a hundred more start-ups submitted ideas to us than last year. This shows that we have our finger on the pulse with our ideas and that there is a great deal of potential for innovation in the agricultural sector,” says Reinhard Bauer, CEO of Agro Innovation Lab.

About Agro Innovation Lab GmbH:

Based in Vienna, Austria, Agro Innovation Lab GmbH (AIL) is a joint innovation platform spearheaded by BayWa AG and RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria AG. AIL’s mission is to make new innovations accessible to the agricultural sector. The company’s activities centre on launching and managing start-up acceleration programmes to support up-and-coming enterprises in the development of their products and in gaining a successful foothold in the market.

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