Launch in North America with future collaboration expansions in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Over the next decade, agriculture and the food system will undergo a massive transformation to produce enough and affordable food for the growing population on limited arable land. Innovative and breakthrough technologies are needed and BASF supports this transition by leveraging the potential of the best digital agriculture ideas from inside and outside the company with its open innovation platform AgroStart which will now be established on a global level.
First introduced in 2016 in Brazil and continuously rolled out across Latin America, AgroStart benefits today from learnings and successes that pave the way for the expansion of the open innovation platform in North America and for future market entries in Europe and Asia Pacific.
AgroStart pairs these ideas with mentorship, market access, exploratory capital and new ways of working. Bringing together trusted capabilities from BASF and entrepreneurs enables quick, efficient and cost-effective co-creation of digital agricultural solutions that help farmers worldwide to tackle the many challenges they face.
AgroStart complements further co-creation initiatives and programs from BASF. The Open Innovation Platform Agro focuses on collaboration with scientists from universities, research institutes, biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies to develop new crop protection compounds.
“With the global launch of our open innovation platform AgroStart, we combine the world’s most promising ideas – be it from BASF’s or external’s bright minds – with our expertise, direct access to our global customer base and markets, mentoring, as well as capital to cultivate the future of digital agriculture together,” said Vincent Gros, President of BASF’s Agricultural Solutions division.
