Australia’s agrifood innovation boom: new data reveals promising growth

grow^AG. was established to support the agrifood innovation ecosystem by providing a one stop window to Australia's vibrant innovators, researchers and startups. For the first time we've been able to collate this data to provide a snapshot of some of the engagement across the platform and the signs are positive for the sector.

grow^AG.’s launch report outlines the visibility, partnerships, and connections facilitated through the platform since its inception, showing a growing interest in agrifood tech within the Australian market.  

With over 400,000 users visiting the grow^AG. platform since 2021, opportunities featured from Australia and global markets has reached over 600 listings, averaging around 150 new opportunities each year. These have sparked over 2500 enquiries and led to 300 early-stage discussions, most involving Australian organisations. The message is clear: Australia’s innovation engine is accelerating.

According to Angela Wakeman, Acting General Manager for AgriFutures Australia’s Global Innovation Networks, over the past four years the way that Governments, universities and corporates engage with agricultural innovation has continued to evolve.  

“From our partnership with Australia’s Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) we’ve seen new models gradually emerging alongside traditional research funding,” Angela explained.

“In total, five of the RDCs have established funds or co-investment models to support and fast-track solutions aligned to their industry priorities and needs, and in the past year alone we’ve also seen RDCs increase the number of opportunities published to the platform.

“This growth has also brought a wider mix of opportunity types to the surface too. While research funding remains the most popular opportunity type listed by RDCs, research commercialisation and innovation programs are also becoming more common.

“This trend is broadening beyond the RDCs as well, with more organisations exploring new pathways to solving industry and supply chain challenges.  

“Universities and corporate innovation companies are following a similar path, and over the past four years organisation profiles and opportunities such as innovation challenges have increased from these groups.

“Combining all this activity together, it suggests that the broader ecosystem may be moving toward a more proactive, solution-focused approach. Organisations are exploring new models, widening their pipelines, and showing a growing appetite for tangible innovation across the supply chain,” Angela concluded.  

The platform’s data also paints an equally exciting global picture.  International markets are paying more attention to Australian grown solutions, with over half of grow^AG.’s users coming from international locations and around 22% of enquires submitted by international sources.

Startups, commercialisation and research is also highlighted as key areas of interest in relation to the enquiries made by both domestic and international users through the platform.  

This grow^AG. report comes as a wider delivery of a refreshed platform which was launched early last week.  

The platform offers users a better view of the ecosystem with enhanced navigation and content, as well as updates to the popular user portal. Informed by stakeholder feedback, grow^AG.’s renewed vision, mission and purpose outlining how the platform will continue to support and enable the ecosystem in the years ahead.

To read the full report, visit: https://www.growag.com/resources/2025-platform-report