22 Nov 2023
*Details below [credit: Agri-TechE / StillVision Photography]
November marked the 10th year of the REAP Conference, AgriTechE’s flagship event, held during AgriTech Week 2023. REAP helps to navigate the demands of 21st Century agriculture by reframing challenges and encouraging new ideas and identifying innovative solutions.
At Rothamsted Enterprises, we were proud to once again be sponsors of the Start-Up Showcase for the 5th year running, and delighted that CEO, Nicole Sadd chaired the afternoon’s event introducing a diverse and innovative range of businesses, each addressing agricultural challenges with the sector.
The businesses who exhibited in the REAP 2023 Start-Up Showcase were:
Agtelligence, who provide financial institutes and funders with a sustainability rating for arable land, using their new tool ‘FarmScore’.
Autopickr, who introduced Gus, its affordable and adaptable asparagus harvester robot.
HerdVision, which is a robust camera system, bringing body condition scoring to the dairy management software system DairyComp.
HotHouse Therapeutics, who use a plant factory to mass produce rare medicinal drugs.
PES Technologies, developing an electronic nose to measure biological health.
PlentySense, offering real-time monitoring of soil nitrogen availability under growing crops using sensors.
Resurrect Bio who are re-engineering the disease response mechanism in plants to restore resilience.
As Nicole explained, “The opportunity to meet early-stage organisations at the cutting edge of the agri-tech sector is exciting and really reflects what Rothamsted Enterprises represents. As an organisation, Rothamsted Enterprises is committed to supporting innovation, collaboration and excellence in agri-tech research.”
And to prove the importance of the Start-Up Showcase to businesses, Ed Fuchs from Folium Science gave an update on their progress over the last year since they were on stage last year including a launch of their new product. Read more here.
*Session Chair Nicole Sadd (Rothamsted Enterprises) (centre) with the presenters from the Start-Up Showcase companies (l-r): Robyn Sands (Autopickr), Nima Eskandari (Agtelligence), Martin Stocks (HotHouse Therapeutics), Tony Miller (PlentySense), Matthew Dobbs (HerdVision) and Jim Bailey (PES Technology) (not pictured is Cian Duggan from Resurrect Bio, who appeared via video).
