Drought Resilience Lab

Get market-ready in 12 weeks.

The Studio’s Drought Resilience Lab equips ag innovators with the resources, specialised support, and networks to turn their technologies into impactful ventures.

Cohort 3 applications close on 9th March, 9 PM AEDT.

Access to bespoke and hands-on venture coaching.

Tailored 1:1 Coaching

Dedicated weekly sessions to help you identify and prioritise key risks, refine your business model, validate assumptions, troubleshoot challenges, and set clear milestones throughout the program.

Expert Masterclasses

Targeted workshops on commercial viability, IP strategies, market analysis, and other critical early-stage topics.

Weekly Cohort Meetups

Collaborative sessions to share progress, exchange insights, and build a strong peer network.

Dedicated Pitch Practice

Structured coaching and rehearsals with real-time feedback to sharpen your narrative and delivery for a commercial audience.

Specialist Support

Access to financial modelling, competitor research, visual design, and other specialist services.

Curated Connections

Explore curated opportunities to connect with industry experts, investors, and potential partners, with guidance on how to engage them at the right stage of your venture.

Get ready to engage with customers, partner with industry, or secure funding.

Entrepreneurial Capabilities

Skills, knowledge, and confidence in early-stage venture building, enabling you to tackle growth challenges and effectively lead your innovation.

Venture Playbook

A pitch deck and commercialisation plan for communicating your opportunity for impact and the pathways for the next stages of growth.

Expanded Network

A strengthened network of peers, potential team members, advisors and investors for supporting the growth and success of your venture.

Industry Exposure

Visibility of your venture among a curated audience of investors, agribusiness leaders, and industry experts.

For innovators who want to transform validated prototypes into impactful ventures.

Entrepreneurial researchers with technologies ready to graduate from the lab to real-world ag applications.

AgTech founders with early-stage prototypes ready to validate and bring to market.

Industry disruptors with game-changing solutions ready to transform agriculture from the inside out.

Build your venture equity-free and unlock future growth opportunities.

Non-Dilutive Participation

Access all program elements at no cost and retain full ownership of your venture, ensuring you can focus on growth without sacrificing equity.

Showcase and Beyond

Opportunity for top ventures to present at a final showcase and the possibility of becoming a Venture-in-Residence with the Studio for a further 12 months.

An intensive 12 week program

Starts 21 April 2025.

Ends 11 July 2025.

All sessions are remote.

A minimum of 1 day per week.

Cohort 3 Applications are now open.

Cohort 3 applications close on 9th March, 9 PM AEDT.

Cohort 4 is scheduled for September 2025.

We are hosting a webinar covering the 12 week program, who should apply, and the application process.

Join us to learn more about Cohort 3.

11 February 2025, 12-1pm AEDT

Supported by our team of Venture Builders

Ben Lever

Venture Builder

Marcus Agnew

Head of Venture Studio

Justin McMurray

Senior Venture Builder

Natalie King

Studio Operations Lead

Hilary Watson

Venture Builder

Brett Geoghegan

Venture Builder

Anna Tao

Venture Builder

Angela Poe Noronha

Venture Builder

Deon Goosen

Venture Builder

Tom van Gammeren

Venture Builder

With funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, our focus is to improve the drought-resilience of Australian farmers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Logistics and timing

  • Applications for Cohort 3 opened on Monday 27 January 2025.

    Applications close on Sunday 9 March 2025, 9pm AEDT.

    Applications received by Sunday 2 March 2025, 9pm AEDT, will be assessed immediately, providing us an opportunity to clarify aspects of your application, which we and previous applicants have found very valuable.

  • Innovators selected for Cohort 3 will begin on-boarding on Monday 14 April 2025 with the 12 week program runs from 21 April to 11 July 2025. Top innovators will also be selected to present at a Showcase Event in late July.

    Innovators are expected to commit a minimum of 1 day per week over the course of 12 weeks. Interactions will typically occur three times per week and include Cohort Meetups, 1:1 sessions with Venture Builders and pitch practice sessions. Additionally, it is expected that Innovators will undertake asynchronous learning and fieldwork throughout each week.

Program details and benefits

  • Participation is free and non-dilutive, ensuring you can focus on building your venture without giving up equity or paying any fees.

  • None. For the next two years, the Drought Venture Studio is funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. Due to the nature of this partnership, the Drought Venture Studio is not currently taking equity in new ventures. The investments made into new ventures are all non-dilutive.

  • During the program existing IP ownership will not be affected. For example, the IP associated with your innovation may be owned by a university or other research institute. Throughout the 12 weeks, if applicable, we will support you and the IP owner to understand the extent to which a new venture can access any required IP, such as through a licensing agreement.

Application Process

  • The bad news is that the answer is yes. You will need to re-submit your application for Cohort 3 if you had already applied for Cohort 1 or 2.

    The good news is that we have substantially improved and streamlined the application process. There are two steps to apply:

    1. Register your intention to apply here. You will then receive a confirmation email with a link to the full online application form.

    2. Complete and submit the full application form. You can also download a copy of all the application questions here so that you can prepare your responses offline.

    If you have any specific questions about the process or your application, please email the team at ventures@beanstalkagtech.com.

  • We aim to have a diversity of quality innovators from various states and regions, however, we do not implement a weighting or quota. We encourage those with a passion to making a difference to apply.

Program Eligibility

  • Yes. A team can participate in the program, however, we do require that a single person be nominated as the primary innovator. This person will be expected to attend all of the sessions and is typically the project lead or startup CEO. The primary innovator should be the program applicant, and the application should list all core team members.

  • We have a very broad interpretation of what constitutes “drought resilience”. We have divided this challenge into 10 areas and examples of technologies that could fit within the broad definition we apply.

    • Water: This includes water management and storage; Irrigation and water use, water sources.

    • Financial Resilience: This includes alternate revenue streams, insurance and access to capital, new markets, employment, and risk.

    • Crops, Horticulture and Planting: This covers crop practices, crop choices, crop information availability, ground cover, animal feed crops and more.

    • Livestock: Including animal production, animal health and welfare, animal reproduction, grazing, carrying and stocking rates, and livestock biosecurity.

    • Soil: This includes land management, soil health and quality, soil moisture and more.

    • Pests and Weeds: This covers anything to do with pest management, weed prevention, and fertilisers.

    • Environment: Including environmental ecosystems, environmental sustainability, natural resource management, bushfires and back burning, forecasting and more.

    • Community Resilience and Wellbeing: This includes personal and familial wellbeing and mental health, cost of living, community resilience, and social connection.

    • Information and Knowledge Sharing: This covers things like drought-specific information, knowledge sharing, decision-making, planning tools and software.

    • Supply Chain Management: Including crop yield and quality, cost and price volatility, supply chain and logistic disruptions, market access, waste management, and more.

    These areas cover a very wide spectrum of potential innovations across technologies as diverse as biology, hardware, biotech, data and algorithms, IoT and sensors, software applications, and much much more. We encourage you to apply even if you’re not 100% sure your innovation qualifies, and we can respond to you with any more information you might need to include.

  • We have a broad view of what constitutes innovation in drought resilience. We consider a range of technologies (such as software, hardware, and biologicals) with a focus on things that are novel and defensible. So it is not essential that you have taken formal steps around protecting your intellectual property - and it is not essential that you have (or will one day need) a patent. It might be just as likely that your innovation revolves around trade secrets (which can be the foundation of a venture’s intellectual property). The bottom line is that if you have an emerging technology that is novel and defensible (and originates in Australia), it will certainly qualify as the type of innovation we can support you with.

  • You must be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or have your IP (technology/innovation) housed in an incorporated company entity to be eligible to apply. Please note that this requires at least an ACN (not just an ABN). You will need to do your own research to clarify the difference.

    There is a narrow exemption to these eligibility in some cases where the main criteria are not satisfied and there is an international innovator or innovation with novel IP and evidence of intent to bring the innovation to Australian farmers. Please contact us if you think this exemption might apply to you.

  • No, innovators that have participated in other accelerator programs can still be considered for the Drought Resilience Lab.

  • The short answer is yes. We are proud to be part of a growing ecosystem of organisations that helps advance agtech ventures in Australia. We will judge applicants purely on our selection criteria. If your innovation also qualifies for other programs’ selection criteria, terrific!

  • We welcome entrepreneurial researchers, early-stage founders, and industry disruptors who want to transform validated prototypes into impactful ventures that contribute to drought-resilience.