Meet the 20 Innovators for Cohort 3 of the Drought Venture Studio!

These game-changers are developing breakthrough solutions across water, weather, livestock, AI, precision agriculture and more—all with one goal: to strengthen drought resilience for Australian farmers. Over the next 12 weeks, our venture builders will work side-by-side with these incredible innovators, researchers and founders to help bring their ideas to life and scale impact across the agtech ecosystem.

NSW: Water, Weather, and the Future of Farming

• Allen Haroutonian – ADEPT AQUA
  Modular water treatment technology enabling farmers to improve water quality, maintain their social license to access river water, and generate on-farm gases that can enhance crop yield.

• Melinda Pickup – Soil Amendment Pellets
  Sustainable, scalable coconut coir pellets designed to improve water retention, germination, and seed survival in degraded drylands under drought conditions.

• Dr. Mahesh Suryawanshi – Australian-Made Novel Agri Photovoltaics Module
  A spectral-sharing AgriPV technology that boosts both crop production and energy generation by redirecting non-PAR light (e.g., infrared) to PV cells, while maximising photosynthetically active radiation for plants - ensuring greater productivity in drought resilient controlled-environment agriculture.

• Dr. Chloe Xia – Watersmart
  A biodegradable nano-spray molecule that mimics ABA, a plant hormone, to improve plant drought tolerance. The system delivers effectiveness at 1,000–10,000x lower dosage than conventional methods.

• Qiyuan Li – DecarbAir
  A CO₂ capture and delivery system for protected cropping, drawing carbon dioxide from outside air and enriching greenhouse environments to enhance plant growth and productivity in drought resilient controlled-environment agriculture.

• Dr. Chris Allen – Treeiage
  A high-resolution, climate-adaptive mapping tool that integrates soil, topography, and climate data to help stakeholders identify suitable land for crop and livestock production under future climate scenarios.

• Karl Lawton – AlgaeHive
  An on-farm bioreactor that cultivates microalgae and bacteria to produce nutrient-rich animal feed during drought, with the added capability to generate bio-stimulants and fertilisers in more favourable conditions.

• Auriol Cecilia Purdie – DroughtFixDX
  A point-of-care livestock diagnostic test for detecting biomarkers of resilience to environmental stresses, enabling same-day in-paddock decisions during water-constrained periods.

QLD: Powering Protein and Precision

• Dr. Aarti Tobin – Just Meat Protein
  A novel, IP-protected process for producing highly soluble, allergen-free meat protein powders from low-value cuts—turning waste into valuable protein, flavourings, and fats.This ensures a higher protein output for the same water input.

• James L. Walker – Agrihive Global Food Metric
  A software platform mapping 18,000 commodities to measure sustainability, carbon footprint, and productivity. The platform incentivises farmers for their sustainability credentials through commercial incentives.

• Luke Malan – Aglantis
  A smart, retrofittable irrigation control system for flood and overhead irrigation farms that uses sensor data to remotely optimise water, energy use, yield, and maximise water use efficiency.

VIC: Smart Systems for Sustainable Growth

• Vigneswaran Appia – CForge
  A modular anaerobic digester that transforms horticultural waste into nutrient-rich liquid fertiliser, generates energy from bio-gas, and reduces costs and emissions from waste disposal.

• Dr. Hugh Zhou – Robotic Automation of Fruit Harvesting
  A robotic harvesting solution for commercial orchards that can help address labour shortages around seasonal labour and deliver rapid help harvesting around extreme weather events.

• Liam Burns – Alterratech
  A low-level retrofit spot-spraying unit for broadacre sprayers that bypasses existing control systems, reducing chemical and water usage by up to 90% through targeted application.

• Dr. Jiao Lin (Joe) – Sonicpeller Self-Cleaning Water Purification System
  A system to ensure reliable, clog-free filtration for off-grid and drought-affected regions of Australia, improving water access for remote communities and farms.

• James Diamond – AirAgri
  A mental health and safety monitoring solution using IoT and voice analysis to identify exhaustion and stress in farmers, often exacerbated in drought conditions, to enable early, remote intervention—even offline.

• Aaron Kosovich – Reschematic
  An AI-assisted tool for rapid cost-benefit and NPV analysis of drought resilience projects, providing early-stage viability assessments for economic, environmental, and social impact.

• Leneila Lynne & Justin Koschitzke – Acumind.AI
  An AI-powered, multilingual safety training platform for agricultural workers. The system delivers engaging, visual content to overcome language and learning barriers, improving safety and mental health for workers in tough conditions.

SA: Seeds, Systems, and Security

• Dr. Mamoru Okamoto – Seed Treatment for Watersmart Dry Sowing
  A seed treatment technology that improves germination by up to 30% under water-limited conditions, enabling effective dry sowing for crop growers.

• Tom Hancock & Hayley Hancock – InsurABLE
  A community-driven, parametric insurance model designed for viticulture and climate extremes like heatwaves. It uses regional weather data to offer per-hectare policies with automatic payouts for input costs during climatic stress.