Are you an agtech startup ?
A farmer who has developed new technology?
A researcher looking to commercialise your innovation?
Or a business looking to apply your technology in the agricultural sector?
2026 Dates Announced Soon!
HARVEST is designed to accelerate the growth of your innovative startup by giving you expert guidance, deep industry insights, critical tools, and strategic connections.
Heading into its ninth year, HARVEST has supported over 90 businesses. The program is valued at over $10,000 and is FREE for successful applicants.
Hear about HARVEST
From our Participants
HARVEST Alunmi Stories
ResonAg – MRI For Your Farm
Founded in May last year, ResonAg spun out from a previous successful startup in a different sector. We joined the HARVEST Accelerator to expand beyond our oil, gas, and mining networks, as we had little limited agricultural industry connections. HARVEST provided the network and support we needed to enter the agtech ecosystem.
ResonAg has miniaturized the same MRI technology used in hospitals to measure water in the human body and adapted it to measure moisture in the soil. We do it in real-time while seeding, ensuring each seed is placed at the optimal depth. Why is that important? Every seed has a specific moisture requirement. For example, with canola, a 2% deviation in moisture can cause a 30% drop in emergence. This innovation improves planting accuracy, optimising crop establishment and boosting overall yield.
As a company, we completed our pre-seed raise last June and are now finalising our seed round. Since then, we’ve grown to a team of six.
Through HARVEST, we were one of the companies funded by Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to attend EvokeAG, where we introduced ourselves to the global agtech community. The response was incredible, and since then, we’ve been approached by VCs and private investors.
HARVEST proved to be an excellent launchpad, helping us refine our pitch and strategy before taking it to a broader stage like EvokeAG.
Importantly, HARVEST helped us connect directly with growers. Those early conversations have now turned into real partnerships, with growers being the first to adopt our technology.
Overall, our experience with HARVEST has been very positive, both during and after the program. It has opened several doors for us, and we highly recommend it.
In recent news, we are pleased to announce that our application with University of WA for a government AEA grant (Low-cost sensing for liquid food supply chain authentication) was successful! We look forward to working with UWA using our cutting edge ASIC based NMR spectrometer.
Tim Hopper, 2024 HARVEST Cohort
HARVEST Alunmi Stories
UpWaste Australia
UpWaste Australia is a unique, tech-driven food waste brokerage and management service that helps businesses to recover value from surplus food and by-products. It takes the burden of finding environmentally and financially sustainable solutions for food waste off agrifood and beverage businesses so they can focus on their core business.
I applied for HARVEST because it seemed like a very targeted business accelerator program that would help me grow my business, UpWaste, which is a B2B trading and management platform for food waste and agricultural by-products. My background is in research and education so I was looking for a program that would address a lot of my knowledge gaps in scaling a start-up – particularly questions I had around private investment, how to pilot with early adopters, and refining my value proposition. I’m glad to say that HARVEST has filled these gaps, helped me to formulate a realistic strategy, and confidently execute it.
I had only just begun developing the concept and business plan for UpWaste when I applied for the HARVEST program. I felt overwhelmed with the dual tasks of learning how to establish a start-up while doing. As a solo founder with no previous tech experience – but a lot of knowledge about the problem I wanted to solve, and who my customers were – I felt frustrated that I couldn’t move quicker to develop a tangible solution.
From the very first bootcamp we attended, Tash and the facilitators provided invaluable insights, structured frameworks, and honest, direct feedback that were relevant to many, critical aspects of my business. HARVEST helped me to refine my product/market fit, develop realistic strategies for funding and growth, and most importantly, taught me how to communicate my value proposition clearly and concisely to customers and investors.
The Agristart network is remarkable and has helped me to make connections with important contacts that would have taken me years to develop on my own. The benefits of participating in the program included consultation and guidance from industry experts, including feedback on strategy, direction, and opportunities which have been invaluable.
I have made more progress in the few weeks since finishing up the program than I did in the months prior to participating. Significant wins include acquiring my first seed funding from an early adopter and acquiring a handful of mid-size to large customers.
What does the future hold for your business?
Steady growth in the food waste space! However, I also have plans for UpWaste in other areas of waste and resource recovery which I am excited to develop (without getting too ahead of myself).
Lynne Loo, 2025 HARVEST Cohort
From our Alumni
From our Partners
From our Founding Partner
Frequently Asked Questions
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2025 Sponsors
Our Alumni
Our HARVEST alumni have been successful in opening commercialisation pathways with new customers and securing major supply agreements, new partners, mergers, capital investment, grant funding, media exposure, awards, acceptance into national programs and international exposure e.g. Austrade landing pads.
Discover the highlights and outcomes of Harvest 2025
Blog: Cohort announcement & bootcamp
Blog: Mid-program review & site visits
AgriStart is the agri branch of Innovation Cluster, one of the leading providers of startup and SME acceleration in Australia. Our team are passionate about agriculture and supporting innovations on-farm, connecting potential investment into Australian innovation and facilitating collaboration in the agricultural sector.
From 2018-2025, AgriStart has delivered 9 Agtech Accelerator programs to 90 businesses with >70 mentors/guest speakers. The program has been instrumental in activating the Agtech sector in WA, with >1000 attendees participating in sector networking, showcase and events.