Nine scaleups from Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Thailand, the US, Australia, and Israel have been shortlisted to join the inaugural cohort of GRAFT Challenge Vietnam
The Australian Government through the Aus4Innovation development assistance programme and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam are supporting nine leading AgriTech scaleups to enter the Vietnam market. The nine scaleups have been selected to join the inaugural cohort of GRAFT Challenge Vietnam, a first-of-its-kind ‘land and launch’ programme designed to give promising innovators from around the world bespoke support to scale into Vietnam to solve the country’s most pressing AgriFood challenges. The GRAFT team evaluated applications from AgriTech scaleups from across 16 countries, including the US, Israel, Australia, India and Thailand before selecting the finalists.
Applicant scaleups pitched solutions for integrated IoT solutions to improve water quality in local aquaculture systems, microbial solutions for environmentally friendly crop health management, and microclimate monitoring and control systems for safer and more energy-efficient piggeries, amongst other examples. All of the scaleups that applied were either post-revenue or had previously graduated from a top global accelerator programme, and nearly 50 per cent of the scaleups in the final cohort are female-led companies.
“The calibre of this year’s applicants exceeded even our already-high expectations. The market-ready solutions and capabilities carried by our inaugural cohort will help many of Vietnam’s AgriFood industry leaders to solve some of their toughest challenges,” said Justin Ahmed, GRAFT Program Lead.
GRAFT Challenge Vietnam convened industry working groups of Vietnamese agribusiness corporates to identify the unique challenges that face Vietnam’s crops and plantations, aquaculture, and livestock industries.
“The strength of the GRAFT Challenge Vietnam 2021 scaleup cohort gives the Australian government even more confidence in this public-private partnership and its potential to kickstart a wave of innovation in Vietnam’s agriculture sector,” said Tom Wood, Program Director of Aus4Innovation.
“Our team was excited that many of this year’s applicants presented digital and data-driven solutions for lingering production challenges in Vietnam,” said Quang Phan, Director of the Mekong Business Initiative Company.
Pham Hoang Ngan, Director of Innovative AgriBusiness Research & Investment (INARI), mentioned, “The proprietary software solutions pioneered by the incoming class of scaleups will have immediate applications for food quality assessment, supply chain efficiency, agricultural project management in Vietnam.”
The selected scaleup cohort will now have the opportunity to deploy their AgriTech solutions and address these challenges. During the week of August 16, the scaleups will begin GRAFT’s 15-week programme of tailored support, during which a network of in-market experts will provide bespoke consultation to help the scaleups validate their technologies. This phase of the programme will culminate with the scaleups presenting their solutions to Vietnamese agricultural corporations at an intensive week-long roadshow.
