The winning pitch came from Carbonaught co-founder and CEO Andrew Pedley, who won $10,000 worth of promotional opportunities.
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00Good morning everyone and welcome to Pitch to Paddock at the Elders Farm Fest in partnership with ACM Rural Events.
00:00:08It's wonderful to have you all here. We've got three exciting startups that we will be hearing from,
00:00:14in particular, of course, from their founders.
00:00:17My name is Sam Al-Maliki and I'm the founder and facilitator of the ACTEC Angel Investor Network
00:00:23and we're very pleased to be here at the Elders Farm Fest running Pitch to Paddock,
00:00:28as I said, in partnership with ACM Rural Events.
00:00:33I do want to start by acknowledging all of the traditional custodians right across the country
00:00:39and their elders past, present and emerging and anyone that's here today.
00:00:47Once again, welcome to Pitch to Paddock. It's wonderful to have another great turnout.
00:00:52We are being live streamed on the Elders Farm Fest Queensland Facebook page,
00:00:58as well as having this event recorded so that we can share it with our broader network of investors
00:01:04and industry leaders right across Australia.
00:01:07So you will be able to get a recording of this as well.
00:01:13We've got a jam-packed, action-packed agenda for you this morning,
00:01:18for this 45-minute to an hour session that we've got.
00:01:22And once again, I really do want to thank Elders for hosting us here at their magnificent pavilion
00:01:27and all of the team who've supported this event.
00:01:31We'll hear from, and you will hear from, three start-ups, Farmers Hub, Monte Compos Co and Carbonaut.
00:01:39We'll then also have a founder panel session where we'll get the opportunity to have more of a conversation
00:01:46and a yarn with the three founders representing those start-ups to learn a little bit more about their innovations
00:01:52and how they're supporting farmers, producers and people right across the supply chain
00:01:57to improve production, productivity and most importantly, profitability.
00:02:02We'll then be able to announce the winner, and courtesy of ACM Agri,
00:02:07we've got a $10,000 equity-free prize in media contra.
00:02:12That's both editorial and advertising that today's winner will take,
00:02:16as well as the opportunity as part of that $10,000 prize to be able to showcase their invention,
00:02:22their product at events like this, at the next Farmers Fest or AgQuip or AgSmart Connect.
00:02:30So it's a great opportunity for the three start-ups that are pitching today to take that prize home
00:02:36and be able to further inform the industry about their amazing invention.
00:02:43And then we'll wrap up at about midday, and we look forward to being able to stay in touch with you well post the event.
00:02:52But just to start off with, for those of you not familiar with the AgTech Angel Investor Network,
00:02:57our focus is on providing capital, counsel and connections to early-stage agri-businesses.
00:03:04Those who have got inventions and are looking to work with industry to validate those inventions,
00:03:11to commercialise them, and most importantly, to have an impact on the agri sector.
00:03:18And we emphasise not just capital, that's not just investment,
00:03:23but also the importance of connections and getting the right counsel, the right advice,
00:03:29which is why we've partnered with ACM and ACM Rural Events to be able to align these pitch-to-paddock events to industry events like this.
00:03:37Because the start-ups that are pitching today are not only seeking to get investment from you and all of our members right across Australia,
00:03:45but it's also about industry connections and industry expert advice.
00:03:49It's the opportunity to provide that connectivity with industry.
00:03:52So thank you for being here, and I really do hope you have the opportunity to connect with our three amazing founders who we'll hear from shortly.
00:04:01As a result of driving that objective of capital, counsel and connections, we're very proud of the community that we've built.
00:04:09And later I'll be able to share with you a special offer to any of you who'd like to join us as members.
00:04:14But as a result of that, we've got a healthy and active community of founders and investors looking to connect and to support each other in driving innovation across the agri sector.
00:04:28And as a result of having that community and in partnership, as I mentioned, with ACM Rural, we run a series of events, these pitch-to-paddock series.
00:04:36It's an ongoing series aligned to industry events like the Elders Farm Fest.
00:04:42In terms of this morning, each startup will have seven to ten minutes to pitch, so you'll get to hear firsthand from the founders.
00:04:50Then we'll ask our judges, who I'll introduce in a moment, to give them the opportunity to ask questions of each founder so that we can get a better understanding of their pitch and their business.
00:05:03And following that, as I mentioned, we'll have a further discussion and conversation with those founders before we announce the winner of this morning's pitch-to-paddock.
00:05:14We're very fortunate to have two expert judges, Lupe Prada from ACM Agri, who is the head of marketing.
00:05:24And thank you, Lupe, for your support of pitch-to-paddock and the network.
00:05:29And of course, Mark McNamee, Area Manager, South East Queensland from Elders.
00:05:33Thank you, Mark, for joining us and for judging today's pitch-to-paddock.
00:05:38Please give our judges and the three amazing founders we have a big round of applause.
00:05:49Well, it's time to get underway with the real show, and that's not to hear from me, but indeed from our amazing founders.
00:05:56And our first start-up that's pitching is Farmers Hub, who are committed to sustainability, community and healthier living.
00:06:04Farmers Hub is transforming the fresh food market by bringing locally grown produce directly to consumers through dedicated in-store hubs.
00:06:15This model eliminates food miles, supports local farmers and offers consumers the freshest, most nutritious options while minimising the environmental impact.
00:06:28Please put your hands together for Tony Corse from Farmers Hub.
00:06:44Thanks for that, Sam. That's appreciated.
00:06:53Where we started on this journey is I live fairly close to the Yarra Valley.
00:07:03I go up there every week or probably every two or four weeks, and we could never find fresh produce like we used to be able to do.
00:07:13So we thought there must be a better way, and it's ended up on a journey 18 months later with what you're about to see.
00:07:21So my background is in retail technology. I've been involved in setting up loyalty programs for Amcal and Mitre 10 and Spotlight.
00:07:32My colleague, Dan Acton, is also in technology. He developed an app called Storybook, which helps people with kids with sleep difficulties.
00:07:45And they've got over three and a half million downloads, and they're now in the US.
00:08:02Before I start, I just want to explain what I mean by fresh produce.
00:08:26So what we're talking about are things like fresh blueberries and strawberries, so fresh produce.
00:08:31But we're also talking about things made from local goods, things like soups made from local products or meals made from local products.
00:08:56So if you walk into a supermarket in the heart of the Yarra Valley, it's incredible how little of the food is actually produced there, although it's the Food Bowl of Melbourne.
00:09:21But if it is, it actually gets transferred from one side of town back right two hours across the other side and then distributed back into the Yarra Valley, which is just crazy.
00:09:32It's not good for the environment. It's not good for our health because fresher products are good for us, and farmers are just not getting a fair share.
00:09:44And convenience stores and consumers want fresh produce, they just can't get it.
00:09:50So what's the solution? Really making it easy for stores to stock local products, like it's easy to do mass produce like they do today.
00:10:02Make it easy for farmers to get the products and package them in the correct way, and the logistics to make sure they get there timely and everything.
00:10:13So that's what our objective is. So how do we do that? We've built technology, so it's sort of like a matchmaking technology.
00:10:22So you match farmers and producers to stores, and then we help consumers find those products, and then the logistics to make it all possible, how we get them from the farm directly to the store.
00:10:43I'll just give you some examples of the tech. On your left-hand side, we make it easy for farmers to sign up.
00:10:54They go to a website, they can sign up to supply their products.
00:10:57For consumers, they can be in store, and they can do a QR code, they can register with us, we'll tell them about fresh products if there's something new coming in as a result of doing that.
00:11:09And we also are doing social media, so we'll tell people through social media like local things that we've got the latest series in or whatever it is.
00:11:24And the other thing we do is we provide packaging in the right way and labelling.
00:11:30So you can see on there, we make it easy for the farmers to get the products packaged correctly and the labelling.
00:11:37And consumers can actually communicate with the farmers through a QR code, so they can tell them, oh, these are the best blueberries I've ever had or whatever.
00:11:45And on the right-hand side, from a store perspective, all they do, they get a curated list of local products, they just order it, and it gets there from their point of view.
00:11:56So we provide the logistics to make it.
00:12:01So what's the market size?
00:12:06There's 6,000 convenience stores in Australia and 300,000 globally.
00:12:11And there's a lot of money spent on food and vegetables and takeaways and things like that in Australia.
00:12:18And 72% of people, our population, lives near a food production area.
00:12:23So it's a big portion of our market.
00:12:26And it's growing rapidly as well, this health market.
00:12:31So what market validation have we got?
00:12:34We've got two trials going.
00:12:37In Mount Evelyn near the Yarra Valley, we've got a convenience store.
00:12:42I've got, it says a paid trial.
00:12:44What I mean by paid trial, they're paying for products, they're paying for the store set-up, and they're paying for all the marketing around the store to advertise it.
00:12:54And they serve 1,000 customers a day, that one in Mount Evelyn.
00:12:57This one's even more exciting.
00:12:59You can see that fridge.
00:13:01And the people online will know some of those stores.
00:13:04These are really high-traffic stores.
00:13:07And that fridge there is within a metre of the front door of every one of those 50 stores.
00:13:14They serve 500,000 customers a week.
00:13:17And they're going to put fresh produce in there rather than what they've currently got.
00:13:21And instead, they've got pies.
00:13:23I think they sell $2.5 million worth of pies.
00:13:26They're going to put in there fresh local products as well.
00:13:31And in a few short weeks, we have had incredible support from farmers.
00:13:37Some of the, a lot of fruit, veggie farmers will know Greeno Karusi, who is a legend around the industry.
00:13:45He's out there talking to people for us.
00:13:47We've got Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods who are making, for the first time, fresh soups and fresh meals for it.
00:13:55So we've got amazing support.
00:14:00Our business model is the farmer gets 40% of the retail price plus,
00:14:06not the 19% they currently get, often get in sit-through supermarkets.
00:14:11They get paid automatically.
00:14:13And we take all parts of the range.
00:14:15We're not just taking the premium.
00:14:17We're looking at all parts of the range.
00:14:20And we've got markets for them.
00:14:22For a store, they pay for the set-off costs.
00:14:25They pay for their products.
00:14:27And they earn their typical margin, the margin they make on everything else.
00:14:32And we run the business as a service.
00:14:35And we are taking a small percentage of the take to marketing.
00:14:42What are our competitors?
00:14:44We've got the freshest product.
00:14:46Our product gets there same day.
00:14:48We'll be doing a lot on the day it's picked.
00:14:52The very worst, it'll be the next day.
00:14:56We'll be selling premium product about the same price as the supermarkets, but much fresher.
00:15:03We'll be selling second-hand prices, which the supermarkets don't take,
00:15:07because it's about half price.
00:15:11So you'll get value consistent by that.
00:15:14But zero food miles, and the farmers getting paid a much better share.
00:15:22How we're going to get it out there is through chains.
00:15:25We've got a 50-store chain who are a pilot site.
00:15:29They're part of BP.
00:15:31But our main aim is to get it out through the chains
00:15:34because we can get to market very quickly like that.
00:15:38And there'd be nothing to stop a region saying,
00:15:41hey, a group of farmers, a group of businesses in the region want to set it up themselves.
00:15:46They can also use the technology as well.
00:15:49We've got a team with experience in tech startups, in retail, in logistics, IT.
00:15:59And if I go to the next slide, we've got experience in ag tech.
00:16:05And I want to just highlight two innovation partners.
00:16:08So we're doing some incredible things.
00:16:10Monash Uni has the Food Innovation Centre.
00:16:13They actually do a lot of the packaging for people like CUB in retail.
00:16:17They're working with us.
00:16:19And similarly in convenience, together we're coming up with products
00:16:24that no one else is offering, that no one else can really copy.
00:16:29And we've got experience in marketing, retail, direct and regional.
00:16:37If we were to just get one of those chains over the next three years as a business,
00:16:43we could be generating a $30 million a year profit
00:16:47because it really scales quickly.
00:16:49There's an investment there to get it out there and get it all working,
00:16:52but it scales quite quickly.
00:16:58We're looking for people...
00:17:00We are about to start a capital raising,
00:17:03and we're looking for people who can add value to what we do
00:17:07through networks and things like that to be part of that.
00:17:10I'll go to the next slide.
00:17:14And I think, why now?
00:17:16So convenience stores...
00:17:18Why did we go to two convenience stores?
00:17:20The first ones, they wanted to do it straight away
00:17:22because they know they've got to offer healthier options.
00:17:25They know that selling pies is no longer the greatest.
00:17:28People want other things.
00:17:30And if you look at it,
00:17:32they're all investing in new income streams
00:17:34because of the decline through Fuelstar.
00:17:38You can see there.
00:17:40Now, if you want to have a look at our technology at all,
00:17:44you can just look, get the QR code,
00:17:46and you can have a look at some of this stuff.
00:17:49Thank you, Tony. Big round of applause for Tony.
00:17:55Great to hear about your innovation
00:17:58and the traction you've had.
00:18:00Please stay there because I'm going to open up
00:18:02for some questions from our judges.
00:18:04And I'll also give members of the audience an opportunity
00:18:07to ask any questions that you might have of Tony.
00:18:10But let's kick off with our judges
00:18:13as they tally up their scores.
00:18:16Happy for either of you to go.
00:18:18Mark, did you want to go first?
00:18:20Yes, sir.
00:18:22My questions are about mostly around deaf initiative.
00:18:25So I saw the information.
00:18:27I'm probably just trying to get a little bit more clarity
00:18:30about some of the information that you presented.
00:18:35Could you define for me who is your customers?
00:18:39Our main customers.
00:18:41What we're doing is that our main customers
00:18:43are convenience stores.
00:18:46But we are making it easy for us as consumers
00:18:49to buy healthy products and for farmers to supply.
00:18:57Sorry.
00:18:59I'll give you an example.
00:19:02We went to our first convenience store,
00:19:05and he said, we know Fresh Stuff sells,
00:19:08but the problem is getting it there.
00:19:10And he gave me an example.
00:19:12He said a guy came in last week
00:19:14and he had the best organic kiwi fruit he'd ever tasted.
00:19:18And he said, drop them in on a Friday,
00:19:20and we'll sell them over the weekend.
00:19:23And Friday comes, he finally shows up on Monday.
00:19:27And by then it was too late
00:19:29because the passing traffic wasn't there.
00:19:32So it's the logistics of making sure
00:19:35that it's there at the right time,
00:19:37packaged in the right way.
00:19:39It's not that consumers really want it.
00:19:43So what I heard then was that
00:19:48the need that you're addressing from that customer,
00:19:52the customer has been quite as tough.
00:19:55Speed to market is critical.
00:19:59But that's a reflection of freshness.
00:20:01Yeah, that's right.
00:20:03Getting it picked on the same day and in the store,
00:20:07and that's where I started from.
00:20:10Yeah.
00:20:23Because I used to buy beautiful, fresh products from the farm
00:20:28and I could never do it.
00:20:30And then we started on a journey and think,
00:20:33why don't we bring it to the people?
00:20:36Because lots of people are driving past.
00:20:38So it started from there.
00:20:40And we've spent 18 months talking to farmers,
00:20:43talking to convenience stores, building the tech.
00:20:46And how we thought it would originally work
00:20:49from every angle, from farmers to...
00:20:52has completely changed
00:20:54because the way we were originally thinking just wouldn't have worked.
00:20:57Yeah.
00:21:04Yeah, they're looking for healthy products.
00:21:07They're looking for zero food miles.
00:21:10And they're looking to support local farmers
00:21:13because everyone sees in the news the supermarkets
00:21:17and they literally will be doubling the return that a farmer gets
00:21:23by taking out all these middlemen.
00:21:25And I could have everyone fascinated for the next half hour
00:21:29some of the interviews I've had
00:21:31with what the supermarkets are doing with farmers.
00:21:35Yeah, they just can't make money.
00:21:41Excellent. Thanks, Tony.
00:21:43And please keep the mic for a moment.
00:21:46I'm just going to open up if there are any questions
00:21:48from the audience for Tony.
00:21:50Yes, please. And just say your name.
00:21:55Yeah.
00:22:02That's a really good question.
00:22:04Tony, do you mind just repeating the question
00:22:06because I'm not sure we heard it.
00:22:08Yeah. So the question was,
00:22:11what are we doing with food waste?
00:22:13So there's two sorts of food waste that we're working with.
00:22:18One, I went into a strawberry farmer last week.
00:22:21The best strawberries were thrown out
00:22:23because the supermarkets don't want them overripe.
00:22:26So we're creating a market for products
00:22:29that you can sell straight away.
00:22:31So that's one area where...
00:22:33And that's a new income stream for farmers.
00:22:37So the second thing is,
00:22:39when it gets to the store and stopping waste...
00:22:41So our aim is to pick up from farmers every day.
00:22:45And currently, if goods go to a supermarket,
00:22:52often they're 14 days after they're picked
00:22:55before they're consumed.
00:22:57So to be the same as supermarkets,
00:22:59we've got 14 days to sell them.
00:23:01We've got an extra five days.
00:23:05And the reason that the quality isn't there in the supermarkets
00:23:10is they have to have goods that last 14 days.
00:23:14They'll throw out the stuff that you and I go,
00:23:17oh, that's perfect.
00:23:19That's exactly what I'm looking for.
00:23:21So does that answer it?
00:23:23Excellent. Thank you, Paul.
00:23:25Are there any other questions?
00:23:28If not, please, a big round of applause for Tony Corse.
00:23:36Thank you, Tony.
00:23:37Our next start-up is Monte Compos,
00:23:40and I'd like to welcome Ash Baxter to the stage.
00:23:45Please give Ash a big round of applause.
00:23:58Thank you.
00:24:06Hi, everyone.
00:24:08Good to go?
00:24:10OK, thank you all so much for coming.
00:24:12My name's Ash.
00:24:13I'm the founder of Monte Compos.
00:24:16So I want to kind of just start you off with a bit of a question.
00:24:19Rhetorical. No one needs to answer.
00:24:21So why are remote monitoring tools so expensive?
00:24:26Why can I go down to the store or online
00:24:29and find a basic smartphone for less than $100
00:24:33that does 4G, 5G, high-def cameras,
00:24:36all of these features,
00:24:38and yet remote monitoring technology
00:24:40that has the same internal components will be thousands?
00:24:45Keep that in mind.
00:24:47So as we know, the future of precision farming
00:24:50is so dependent on IoT technologies.
00:24:54In order to have those optimisations,
00:24:56those improvements, those advancements,
00:24:58we need to actually have data on what's happening.
00:25:02And honestly, with those prices that I mentioned before,
00:25:06that's just not possible.
00:25:08We need new IoT solutions.
00:25:11So I'd like to introduce you to Monte OHM,
00:25:16our remote real-time monitoring and analysis software
00:25:20for organic materials.
00:25:23We created Monte for use in composting.
00:25:26So basically it's a 10x upgrade
00:25:29to current old-school open-window composting
00:25:32in a whole bunch of different ways.
00:25:35To kind of go over quickly how it works,
00:25:38it's pretty straightforward.
00:25:40Our custom hardware tracks in real time,
00:25:43right now, data points of temperature, evaporation,
00:25:46and a gas spectrum called volatile organic compounds.
00:25:50That's uploaded, where our proprietary analysis model
00:25:53analyses that for insights
00:25:56on important actionable management operations.
00:26:01Our software then delivers that to operators
00:26:04to improve, optimise,
00:26:06and kind of increase the efficiencies of their facilities.
00:26:11Those kind of benefits, those value-adds,
00:26:13have a whole bunch of different kind of ways
00:26:16to improve whatever kind of composting you're doing.
00:26:19Firstly, they have automation benefits.
00:26:24So instead of sending a guy out to manually take readings
00:26:27with a probe, you can save hours every day
00:26:30just having it automatically done through our hardware.
00:26:34That results in optimisation benefits
00:26:36to reduce the amount of water used,
00:26:38know when to turn things over,
00:26:39know when to blend them,
00:26:40know when there's contamination.
00:26:42It also helps with compliance.
00:26:44Composting is one of the most scrutinised organic processes
00:26:47out there, and it's constantly being tested
00:26:49by Department of Environment.
00:26:51Finally, our hardware can track in real time
00:26:54things like emissions, impact, and pollution,
00:26:57which is going to be critical
00:26:59in the future green trends of reporting.
00:27:02So our markets for this is very substantial
00:27:05and broken down into four key sub-markets.
00:27:08So there's the kind of dedicated waste recyclers,
00:27:11that's people like councils.
00:27:13There's waste water utilities.
00:27:15They produce this delicious organic sludge
00:27:17that needs to be managed.
00:27:19But most relevant today is the other three quarters
00:27:22of our market, which is intensive animal agriculture,
00:27:25so things like feedlots and abattoirs.
00:27:27They produce a lot of organic waste.
00:27:29And then finally, a much broader market
00:27:31of food processors and producers.
00:27:34There is a massive trend across the industry
00:27:36of wanting to manage your own organic waste on site
00:27:39for all the benefits that you all already know.
00:27:44Now, that's all very exciting for composting,
00:27:46but Monty is capable of doing so much more.
00:27:51At Monty, our mission is to offer monitoring solutions
00:27:55for every kind of organics.
00:27:58But I mean, you know, the ag tech shed's next door.
00:28:01There's so many solutions out there
00:28:03that are even here today.
00:28:05With all these competitors, why are we so special?
00:28:08You know, I can talk to our world's first analytics.
00:28:11I can talk to all the amazing things
00:28:13that, you know, we do with our software.
00:28:16But at the end of the day,
00:28:17our big point of difference comes down to one factor.
00:28:23Our pricing starts with a dollar a day.
00:28:27When all these other competitors are too scared
00:28:30to even put their pricing on their website,
00:28:33we can allow any operator to monitor
00:28:37whatever organics they have
00:28:39at this accessible, affordable price point.
00:28:43So our whole pricing model is tainted
00:28:45to that value-first ethos.
00:28:48You can get basic data tracking, basic reporting,
00:28:51all at that dollar a day.
00:28:53But if you want extra features,
00:28:54if you want emissions tracking or optimization
00:28:57or more modeling, we can scale that up
00:28:59in our flexible subscription service
00:29:01in order to make sure that you're only paying
00:29:04for what you're using.
00:29:06So in short, we're making IoT accessible
00:29:10for everyone, everywhere.
00:29:12And the reason we can do that is because
00:29:14our management team has extensive experience
00:29:17in consumer electronics, in scaling businesses,
00:29:20in delivering technology en masse
00:29:23at an affordable, accessible price.
00:29:27We started Monty all the way back in 2019
00:29:30based on research that came out of
00:29:32the University of Queensland.
00:29:34And since then, we've spent over five years
00:29:37studying that, going through dozens of hardware
00:29:40and software iterations, testing it in-field,
00:29:44actually through our very first product line,
00:29:46which was a consumer version of the technology
00:29:49for home composters, which has now been
00:29:52in over 600 different home operations,
00:29:55as well as multiple pilot trials
00:29:57in larger-scale operations.
00:30:00And finally, receiving over the life of our company,
00:30:03almost $2.5 million in funding,
00:30:06including a recent $1 million that we closed
00:30:08just last month.
00:30:10What we're moving on to do is, in August,
00:30:13we are actually launching this industrial
00:30:15commercial composting product,
00:30:18and already have a very full pipeline
00:30:20of engaged clients.
00:30:22Using those initial projects,
00:30:25we are going to be validating and using
00:30:27user-driven feedback to refine the product line
00:30:30and make sure that it is delivering value
00:30:32for every kind of user.
00:30:34We then plan on expanding into different kinds
00:30:36of on-farm and industrial composting operations,
00:30:40and then finally, diversifying by developing
00:30:43new monitoring applications for all the organics
00:30:46that are out there.
00:30:48Our ask today is mainly intros.
00:30:51I'm always the first person to say that
00:30:53we're not experts in agriculture.
00:30:55We're experts in data, in compost,
00:30:58in electronics, in all the things that we specialise in.
00:31:01But we need expertise from people in the industry
00:31:04to help us create solutions,
00:31:06to help us understand what problems you have
00:31:08even better, and deliver them in an affordable,
00:31:11accessible way.
00:31:13Thank you all so much for listening,
00:31:15and I really look forward to taking all your questions.
00:31:17Thank you.
00:31:19Thanks, Ash.
00:31:21I'm happy to open up, firstly,
00:31:23to questions from our judges. Lupe?
00:31:25It's really interesting to hear you talk about
00:31:28affordability.
00:31:29I guess my question to you is around accuracy.
00:31:32It sounds to me like you've been working in maybe
00:31:35smaller environments to start with,
00:31:38so moving into a large scale,
00:31:40how do you feel about your accuracy?
00:31:42Could you give me more information on that?
00:31:43That's a great question.
00:31:44So, kind of two points on that.
00:31:46Yes, we initially started in small-scale composting,
00:31:49but we also did two large piles and giant windows
00:31:53last year, and we were really happy,
00:31:55because I was so worried.
00:31:56We come from a hardware background.
00:31:58Everything always fails.
00:31:59We were really happy that it was actually a very
00:32:02straightforward transition from 300 kgs of organic waste
00:32:06to 300 tonnes.
00:32:08The performance was identical, and the data was all
00:32:11exactly what we were expecting.
00:32:13The way that we validate the accuracy is actually
00:32:15with a lot of smarts in the software.
00:32:17So, instead of, and just on the point of compost,
00:32:20it's quite funny that even the industrial equipment
00:32:23is highly inaccurate.
00:32:25The amount of drift that you get,
00:32:27the amount of calibration that's needed,
00:32:29even in these industrial sensors,
00:32:31is incredibly high for what you're paying for.
00:32:34The way that we look at the actual accuracy is
00:32:37through a lot of the software smarts,
00:32:39where we can actually track.
00:32:40They take readings every 15 minutes currently,
00:32:43but we can do high-frequency polling and actually
00:32:46detect the accuracy based on how the data moves.
00:32:49When you get that volume of data,
00:32:51you can be a lot more certain than even a much
00:32:54price sensor, that you're only taking readings from
00:32:57maybe once a week, if that kind of makes sense.
00:33:01Thank you, Matt.
00:33:03I've got a quick question.
00:33:08Have you done any work to make the ROI,
00:33:13if someone has the business,
00:33:16who someone who has used that once,
00:33:19made a difference there by more?
00:33:21That's a great question.
00:33:23In terms of a commercial composting operation,
00:33:26again, in that pilot we did,
00:33:28we identified an efficiency improvement,
00:33:31just from the manual monitoring that they were doing,
00:33:34to the automated monitoring that we can offer,
00:33:37as 20% of a single operator's time.
00:33:41If we're coming at them with that $1 a day pricing,
00:33:45that's a return on investment just on those hours saving
00:33:48of less than a year.
00:33:51That's just labor.
00:33:54Now, there are a whole bunch of secondary benefits that include,
00:33:57for example, reducing the risk of combustion in composting,
00:34:01which has fines of tens of thousands of dollars,
00:34:03reducing pollution risks.
00:34:05I'm sure everyone heard about asbestos and what that's causing
00:34:09for these composting facilities.
00:34:11There's also the hours saved in compliance and reporting.
00:34:14That data's collected by the operator,
00:34:16but it then needs to be processed by quality control people,
00:34:20by larger stakeholders.
00:34:22All of that we can streamline, we can put into templates,
00:34:24and we can report on, all through our software.
00:34:27A whole bunch of different things that we're kind of hoping,
00:34:30with these launch projects that we've got coming up in August,
00:34:34we'll be able to quantify that even more.
00:34:37Thanks, Ash.
00:34:38Any questions from the audience?
00:34:41If not, please join me in giving Ash from Monte Compost
00:34:44a big round of applause.
00:34:46Thank you.
00:34:50Our next and final start-up is Carbonaut,
00:34:54rebuilding the food system.
00:34:56Please put your hands together for Andrew Pedley,
00:34:58the founder of Carbonaut.
00:35:07Good morning, everybody.
00:35:08My name's Andrew.
00:35:09I'm one of the co-founders of Carbonaut.
00:35:13Interesting that I'm in the elder's tent with this pitch,
00:35:15but here we go.
00:35:18We're on a mission to rebuild the food system,
00:35:20literally, by manufacturing black soils, basalt soils, at scale,
00:35:24and basically moving it from a gift of the gods
00:35:28into a more democratically accessible feature of farming.
00:35:36Let's back it up, back it up, back it up.
00:35:38There we go.
00:35:39Yeah, thank you.
00:35:40So what we're about is giving farmers,
00:35:43and specifically at this stage, large family to corporate farming entities,
00:35:47the tools they need to convert rocks into carbon-removing fertiliser
00:35:52that can help increase the NPV per hectare up to 65%,
00:35:5720% of that being through fertiliser cost savings
00:36:00through PK, calcium magnesium substitution,
00:36:04and the other, at the moment, what we're experiencing,
00:36:0740% are from price premiums on low-emission products
00:36:10being tapped into global supply chains.
00:36:13Thank you.
00:36:14We're working with some of the largest
00:36:16hort and cropping farms down the East Coast
00:36:19who are using us and trialling with us at the moment
00:36:21because we're helping them solve what they term
00:36:23as a once-in-a-generation challenge.
00:36:25So they're being hit with fertilisers 2 to 3x
00:36:28higher than the historical five-year average,
00:36:31and independent of that,
00:36:32a bunch of these net-zero policies are coming in,
00:36:35which are, I would say, very naive at this stage,
00:36:38and what that naivety means is that the big supermarket chains
00:36:42and the big buyers are sitting there wanting to tick a box
00:36:45and demanding lower-emission products,
00:36:48not really offering any solutions,
00:36:50and the solutions that are on offer...
00:36:52Hopefully I've got that slide. Yeah.
00:36:54A lot of the solutions that are on offer
00:36:56are catering to that emission-centric viewpoint
00:36:58and ignoring food as an energy system,
00:37:00and what that means is most of the emission-reduction solutions
00:37:03out there at the moment
00:37:05are actively hostile to intensive agriculture.
00:37:07So for rangelands, tree planting might be OK,
00:37:10but we're talking between the range and the sea.
00:37:14It's actually actively hostile.
00:37:17It's got huge barriers to adoption.
00:37:19Slow it down. Back it up.
00:37:21Back it up, back it up, back it up.
00:37:23Huge barriers to adoption
00:37:25in terms of armies of consultants
00:37:27standing between a farm
00:37:29and an actual solution being deployed.
00:37:31And then ultimately, a lot of these...
00:37:33In fact, almost all of the solutions rely on being loss-making
00:37:37unless there's a carbon credit revenue stream in there,
00:37:40which not only shoves a whole bunch of technical risk onto the farms,
00:37:45it also shoves almost all of the market risk onto the farms as well.
00:37:49And we think that's a pretty bad way,
00:37:52whether you're in the net-zeros good camp or its naive camp,
00:37:55it's a really bad strategy to achieve what everyone's trying to do.
00:37:58Thank you.
00:38:01So what we do is we basically harness logistics and science
00:38:05to speed up the way nature creates volcanic soils.
00:38:09We allow...
00:38:11We put into the hands of farmers the power
00:38:14to access, source and screen local basalt,
00:38:18spread it on their land in zero till,
00:38:21and then accurately track the key chemical reactions
00:38:24that happen thereafter.
00:38:26And those chemical reactions deliver a bunch of effects
00:38:30from physically building new soil layers.
00:38:32We've got a 25-year trial site.
00:38:34It's built 21 centimetres of fertile topsoil over that time period.
00:38:38As it's building those fertile topsoils,
00:38:41it's releasing PEK, calcium, magnesium and trace minerals
00:38:45at a rate of knots.
00:38:47So for a 20-tonne...
00:38:49A figurative 20-tonne payload,
00:38:51you're going to be delivering half a tonne each of calcium...
00:38:53of phosphorus and potassium
00:38:55and two tonnes each of calcium and magnesium.
00:38:58But you've also got this engine sitting under the hood,
00:39:01which is kind of where our team got its early chops,
00:39:04is tracking this carbon removal chemical reaction
00:39:06that everyone thought took 10,000 years to happen
00:39:09actually takes three to five years to happen.
00:39:11And the really important thing is that the CO2
00:39:14that gets captured from rainwater or irrigation,
00:39:16so the CO2 in that water,
00:39:18certain minerals grab it and bind it up forever.
00:39:21So it's not going to reappear on companies' balance sheets.
00:39:24So that gives a lot more assurance
00:39:26to the purchasers of low-emission goods in the supply chain.
00:39:29Moreover, that process, it focuses on inorganic carbon,
00:39:33but the really important thing is that for every tonne of CO2
00:39:36that we pump into the atmosphere,
00:39:38from drill and blast, extraction, moving it, spreading it,
00:39:42we're talking about 50 to 100K ranges,
00:39:44for every tonne we pump in the atmosphere,
00:39:47we're permanently removing nine tonnes of CO2,
00:39:49which is a really good starting point
00:39:51when we're talking about, OK,
00:39:53how do I prove that something's low-emission?
00:39:55Thank you.
00:39:57But science and logistics isn't enough.
00:39:59We think a lot of the solutions in this space at the moment
00:40:02are lacking, like, one key element,
00:40:04and that key element is adoption.
00:40:06Like, how does this fancy tech or how does this interesting technology
00:40:09or process embed in a current operational platform?
00:40:14And so figuratively, with the click of a button,
00:40:17we allow farmers to source local basalt,
00:40:20screen it to make sure there's no heavy metals, et cetera, in it,
00:40:23and arrange and orchestrate the logistics to move it on-farm.
00:40:26Thank you.
00:40:30Using existing farming equipment,
00:40:32also track and measure the spreading
00:40:34on both a dollar cost and emission cost perspective
00:40:37the whole way through.
00:40:39And finally, orchestrating and arranging
00:40:41all the scientific testing that needs to be done
00:40:43to make third-party independent validation
00:40:45of all the low-emission elements of this growing system,
00:40:48seamless and automatic in the background.
00:40:52Thank you.
00:40:56So, as far as we see it, you need the logistics,
00:40:59you need the science, but you also need market connections
00:41:02to actually, before you even put rock down,
00:41:04you need to have secured a buyer,
00:41:06either domestically or internationally,
00:41:08that says, yes, I actually want what you're growing,
00:41:11and I'm going to pay a premium for it.
00:41:13I should stress that without the market premium,
00:41:17this still washes its face,
00:41:19but it's the market premium and it's the social proof, frankly,
00:41:22that's going to get the adoption up and running.
00:41:24How we earn revenue is that a farm doesn't exist
00:41:29until it's on our platform.
00:41:31As rock moves from outside the system into our system,
00:41:35we take a clip on every tonne of rock that moves in,
00:41:37like a typical fertiliser play,
00:41:39and then only if and only when we secure
00:41:43above-market premiums for the product in market,
00:41:46we take a clip of that premium on the commodity
00:41:48as it goes out as well.
00:41:50And the idea there is to sort of offset all the logistics
00:41:52and all the MRV costs.
00:41:55And I think for us, in terms of revenue scheme for a farmer,
00:41:59it's capturing the abatement effect,
00:42:01so lower synthetic fertiliser uses,
00:42:03and monetising that on the crop is the primary benefit.
00:42:06We are very good at the carbon removal slash carbon credit space,
00:42:10but we believe that is a by-product.
00:42:12It shouldn't be the front and centre of a business model
00:42:14where farming is approaching low-emission production.
00:42:18What does that mean?
00:42:19Ultimately, at the end of the day,
00:42:21we're turning a rock that markets for about $20 a tonne at the moment
00:42:24into $150 of on-farm value
00:42:26for the seven pilot sites we have now around Australia
00:42:29across different harvest and cropping operations.
00:42:32Thank you.
00:42:34We've been sort of in the R&D phase,
00:42:38making sure this process works for the last 18 months, two years,
00:42:41across different climates, different crop types,
00:42:43different soil types,
00:42:44and making sure that all the chemical reactions
00:42:46that we expect to happen are happening as expected.
00:42:50Basically, this year,
00:42:51we started to move into the commercialisation phase
00:42:53once we figured out how the market wants to consume this technology.
00:42:56Since then, we've been able to pretty healthily grow
00:42:59our farmer-paid trial revenue.
00:43:01So we go from trials into pilots into expansion projects.
00:43:06And the reason I put these numbers up here
00:43:08is that you can see where the carbon credit sales
00:43:11versus the farmer-paid trials as a fertiliser,
00:43:14like just the order of magnitude difference
00:43:16in terms of where the interest is.
00:43:18We've also secured over half a million dollars
00:43:20in non-diluted funding from both the US governments
00:43:23in partnership with UC Davis in the Central Valley of California.
00:43:26We've just picked up our first contract in Washington State,
00:43:29up near Quincy,
00:43:30and also $100,000 from the Queensland government.
00:43:32Thanks.
00:43:34We've held a pretty broad front over the last two years,
00:43:38figuring out where exactly does this fit.
00:43:40Our go-to-market is going to be hyper-focused
00:43:42on sugarcane in the short term.
00:43:44We have concluded Australia's first low-emission sugar deal
00:43:47in the Bundaberg region,
00:43:49off 20 hectares of our Phase 1 rollout.
00:43:51We are now negotiating a $20 million deal
00:43:54with Japan's second-largest sugar refiner
00:43:57and one of the biggest food-drink companies in the world
00:44:00in partnership with QSL.
00:44:02And so the executives are flying out next month to sign that POC.
00:44:06But the idea of that is the two clients we have in that region
00:44:10control 28,000 of the 50,000 available hectares
00:44:13for sugarcane growing,
00:44:14and so we've got very good concentration.
00:44:16And we've got one of those producers being domestically,
00:44:18which gives us our domestic business model representation,
00:44:21and one that is export-orientated,
00:44:23which gives us that export orientation.
00:44:26We're starting in Bundy,
00:44:28but Australia, as is often the case through sheer dumb luck,
00:44:31is almost globally unique
00:44:33in that we have really young, reactive, fit-for-purpose basalt
00:44:37stretching all the way down from Mareeba
00:44:39down to south-east South Australia,
00:44:41being actively dug up,
00:44:43and where it just sits in piles and disregarded,
00:44:45right on the doorstep of prime agricultural land
00:44:47that's crying out for deacidification and fertility upgrades.
00:44:51And we've got the jurisdiction risk.
00:44:53We don't have slavery here.
00:44:54And we've got all the heavy toys and expertise
00:44:56to actually make that happen.
00:45:00It expands pretty well.
00:45:01Basalt's one of the second most common prevalent rock in Earth's crust,
00:45:05but it's about where it's being dug up
00:45:07and where is food being produced nearby.
00:45:09We've already had initial conversations with governments
00:45:11in West Africa, Rwanda, also Fiji,
00:45:14and our US footprint is now starting to slowly expand.
00:45:19Our team worked together for about five years.
00:45:21We came from the same team within mining,
00:45:23where we built out the core technology behind Carbonort.
00:45:26If you think about it,
00:45:27we're just basically taking all the technology
00:45:30that a mining company would pay for
00:45:32to ensure profitable operations,
00:45:34picking it up and dragging it across into an agricultural context
00:45:37and putting that in the hands of the farming organisations
00:45:39that we work with.
00:45:42James and Rhys both have PhDs in machine learning and stuff.
00:45:45I'm the only non-professor or doctor in the team,
00:45:48so that's why I get to do these things, which is great.
00:45:52We've just finished our seed round,
00:45:55and that's setting us up
00:45:57to really exploit this sugarcane opportunity
00:46:00and set a global blueprint
00:46:02for how low-emission agriculture can be done,
00:46:04separated out from the fanfare
00:46:06and a lot of the naivety of the carbon credit-focused solutions
00:46:09and just showing you this isn't an environmental carrot,
00:46:12it's not an environmental stick,
00:46:14this is just good business, this is just better.
00:46:16Where it can be done, this is the way to do it.
00:46:20Why am I here today in lovely Toowoomba?
00:46:23We are sitting on between one and two million tonnes
00:46:27of available rock ready to go,
00:46:29and we're looking if you or someone you know
00:46:32has a farming operation,
00:46:34so Toowoomba's down here in the lower right-hand corner,
00:46:38basically in that zone there,
00:46:40if you know or you are in that region with a farm
00:46:44and would be interested in talking about partnering with us,
00:46:47we've got probably one of the more unique deposits
00:46:51in Queensland pretty much ready to go.
00:46:53And so, yeah, my main objective today
00:46:56is just to reach out and meet new people
00:46:58and if you've got connections in that area, give me a yell.
00:47:01Thank you.
00:47:02Terrific. Big round of applause for Andrew from Carbonort.
00:47:05We'll open up to some judges' questions.
00:47:07We'll start with you, Lupe.
00:47:09Yeah, I guess my question is around business challenges.
00:47:12What I'd say is your biggest business challenge.
00:47:14Is it innovation adoption? Is it logistics?
00:47:17The question is the biggest business challenge we're facing.
00:47:21Honestly, I think the biggest business challenge
00:47:24we've had to navigate over the last sort of 18 months,
00:47:26and I don't see it changing any time soon,
00:47:28is creating a proxy for trade finance.
00:47:31So we're in logistics and we're in moving stuff,
00:47:34we're in crop cycles, we're in rock-breaking-down cycles,
00:47:38and the world, as I can tell you, the world in which we move,
00:47:41the investors are all very, like, quick, quick, quick, quick,
00:47:44where's my next Facebook, where's my next Google, whatever.
00:47:47None of them understand that Google took five years to make a profit,
00:47:50let alone do anything meaningful.
00:47:52So not being able to get trade finance to actually underpin this
00:47:57is a reality that we don't ring against,
00:47:59but you've got to be creative in how you actually, like,
00:48:01stay alive through that process.
00:48:04And we've done that through non-dilutive funding
00:48:06and just being hopefully pretty smart with how we deploy our projects
00:48:10and the team we get on board and stuff like that.
00:48:12I should have mentioned we've got two of the leading professors
00:48:15in Australia in soil carbon and petrology on our founding staff as well.
00:48:20Are you planning a farmer adoption,
00:48:22something that is easy to bring to market, or is it just...
00:48:25Yeah, so farmer adoption, at the risk of being controversial here,
00:48:28we, as I mentioned, like, where we focus in terms of our...
00:48:32We hold an assumption that Pareto's principle holds pretty hard.
00:48:36In a certain district, there might be 100 farmers,
00:48:38five are going to matter for what we're trying to do.
00:48:42They've got the resources, capability, motivation, equipment, capital.
00:48:47Like, there's only going to be a small subset,
00:48:49and that's who we cater to,
00:48:50and they generally own about 80% of the land anyway.
00:48:53And so when we talk about adoption in the zone,
00:48:55Bundaberg, that 28,000 with optional and 3,000 more,
00:48:59we get 30-odd thousand, 60% of the land area in that one region to dominate,
00:49:03and that's how we will focus on our adoption
00:49:06because that means the pilots we do have a viable scaling mechanism.
00:49:10So once we've done a 1,000 hectare operation,
00:49:13we can then scale to 14,000 with the same entity,
00:49:16the same systems, et cetera.
00:49:18Thanks, Andrew. Mark?
00:49:20So, again, I seem to be the commercial guy.
00:49:22Right.
00:49:23So, understanding the revenue model,
00:49:25you've got a product you're selling, you're applying it,
00:49:28there's hopefully a yield, there's a data to it,
00:49:31and then there's the third that comes through,
00:49:33which is the extension, right? Yep.
00:49:35How do you protect that IP?
00:49:38Is it a certification process with the farmers
00:49:41so that they're certified that they're producing...
00:49:47..yeah, whatever they're producing under this system?
00:49:50And then what protects you from someone else's stuff,
00:49:54the process of...
00:49:56No, I was just going to say that it's...
00:50:01..it's ironic, because I can tell you,
00:50:03Elmer's really interested in this stuff.
00:50:06You're a bit too big to care about us at the moment.
00:50:08But the question was about commercial IP,
00:50:11like the IP around the commercial model
00:50:13and what's to prevent someone else just going down the road
00:50:15and getting some basalt, which is, for us,
00:50:18I think the first thing, hopefully you understand,
00:50:21it's just really bloody hard to stitch together logistics,
00:50:24science...
00:50:26Yeah. Oh, sorry, that's not the question.
00:50:29My question is, when it gets to that third part,
00:50:32how do you protect your IP there?
00:50:35So is that with, like, a Suntory, for example?
00:50:37Yeah, yeah, so, because they're large businesses,
00:50:40they see what you're doing,
00:50:42so they could replicate both at home,
00:50:45so how do you protect that?
00:50:47I think the way we plan on protecting what we do
00:50:50is embedding both our technology and our process
00:50:52in these large, closed-loop food systems.
00:50:54That's why we're focusing on the mill
00:50:56that does 20% of Australia's exports to Japan,
00:50:58with the second-largest refiner
00:51:00and the largest sugar buyer there.
00:51:02Embedding, and ultimately, our software platform
00:51:05is designed to create competitors to our competitors,
00:51:09so, like, you have the power to actually run this yourself,
00:51:12and once you get those closed-loop food systems incentivised
00:51:15and, like, they're in control,
00:51:17to dig that out is going to be really, really hard.
00:51:20Plus, we've also got international patent applications
00:51:22in on the actual carbon removal process.
00:51:27Honestly, I think it's going to be white-labelled,
00:51:29so we just sit in the background
00:51:31and do a quiet capability upgrade for these food systems,
00:51:33and they get to say, we've lowered our scope three,
00:51:35we've got better sugar, we're helping the community,
00:51:37better for the environment, blah, blah, blah, blah,
00:51:39and we just sit in the background and just do our thing.
00:51:43Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:51:44Terrific.
00:51:45Well, thank you very much.
00:51:46Big round of applause for Andrew.
00:51:51I'll shortly call up all three founders to the stage
00:51:54for a brief panel chat and just a good old yarn,
00:51:58but before I do that, as I said today,
00:52:01as a result of our partnership with ACM AGRI
00:52:04and, of course, Elders,
00:52:06who are hosting this Pitch to Paddock session,
00:52:08we're offering all of you here in the Elders' Pavilion,
00:52:12as well as everybody that's watching the live stream,
00:52:14a complimentary membership.
00:52:16So if you take out your phones,
00:52:18and I'll give you a couple of minutes to do that,
00:52:20if you take out your phone
00:52:22and upload the QR code that's on your screen,
00:52:26you then can access our free complimentary membership
00:52:30and join our community of founders and investors
00:52:33so you're at the forefront of innovation across the AGRI sector.
00:52:41Excellent.
00:52:42While people are doing that,
00:52:43can I ask Ash, Tony and Andrew to please join me up on the stage?
00:52:49And hopefully our judges are taking the time to tally up their scores
00:52:53so that we can announce the winner in a moment.
00:53:02Firstly, can I just ask everybody here in the pavilion
00:53:05to just give these three amazing founders a big round of applause?
00:53:13I can assure you,
00:53:15I can assure you as a founder,
00:53:17it takes a lot of courage, conviction and commitment
00:53:20to do what these guys are doing,
00:53:22and I'm sure anybody who's started a business in the room
00:53:25would attest to that.
00:53:26So thank you and congratulations for being shortlisted
00:53:30and having the opportunity to pitch.
00:53:32We had a number of start-ups wanting to be part of this Pitch to Paddock,
00:53:36as we usually do, and we can only accommodate so many.
00:53:39So congratulations on making it this far,
00:53:43and I'm sure you're eager to hear who's the winner in a moment.
00:53:47But beyond what sort of inspired you to do what you're doing
00:53:51and starting the businesses that you've started,
00:53:54can I ask you, and I really want to focus this conversation
00:53:57more about the journey, if you like, of being a founder,
00:54:00just so that you can give people in the room a sense of your experience,
00:54:03what keeps you going?
00:54:04And I'll start with you, Ash.
00:54:06Oh, God.
00:54:08What keeps me going?
00:54:11I mean, I don't want to say just like sheer bitter stubbornness,
00:54:16but I feel like there is probably that as a characteristic of myself
00:54:22that, you know, I think being in the space of composting,
00:54:26there's pretty much no one who really, we call it the compost filter,
00:54:30but there really isn't a lot of excitement about it from people.
00:54:33They don't really encourage it.
00:54:35So we've gotten a lot of no's over the five years that I've been doing this,
00:54:39and I think I personally have the characteristic
00:54:42where every time someone tells me no, I'm like, well, you know what?
00:54:46I'm not going to say the word now, but that's how I react mentally.
00:54:49So I wish I could say that it's just because I'm really passionate about this,
00:54:54which I am, and I love doing it, and I love the people I work with.
00:54:57I love getting to do something new every day.
00:55:00But I think all of that stuff, when you're really tired, it can wear off.
00:55:03So I think that's probably the real honest answer.
00:55:07Yeah, and thank you.
00:55:08And that's really where my question is.
00:55:10You know, it's easy to get started sometimes,
00:55:13particularly if you're driven and you've got an idea.
00:55:16It's actually to keep going is the hardest bit
00:55:18because you do often get more no's than yeses.
00:55:21So Andrew, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
00:55:23Yeah, 100%.
00:55:24And I think the thing we realised when we started this thing
00:55:26is that these things are easy to start,
00:55:28but, yeah, it kicks in after a couple of months,
00:55:31and introductions are worth a lot less than people think they are from outside
00:55:34who are trying to help and all that.
00:55:36For us, it was frustration, really.
00:55:38We all worked in the same mining company.
00:55:40I believe then, I believe now, we'd be much bigger and much more effective
00:55:43if we were still in a mining company.
00:55:45But, yeah, having people sort of go, that's too crazy.
00:55:48And, frankly, looking at the public discourse about low-emission stuff,
00:55:55for us, it seemed stupid.
00:55:58People were putting things out there
00:56:00and not thinking about food as an energy system.
00:56:02And so we thought, and also coming from heavy industry,
00:56:06everyone had written off heavy industries to bad guys,
00:56:08and I see ag starting to drift into that kind of they're-the-bad-guys camp
00:56:12while some tech company pays billions for carbon credits.
00:56:15And so it was kind of frustration that we thought,
00:56:17okay, well, we can actually do this.
00:56:19The people who are meant to be our self-appointed saviours
00:56:22haven't got the chops to be able to pull this off,
00:56:24and they're going to do a whole bunch of damage in the meantime.
00:56:27Let's go to work in that space.
00:56:32I've been involved in a number of start-ups virtually my whole career,
00:56:36often as an employee, some of my own.
00:56:40What I love is coming up with an idea, what we thought,
00:56:44and actually seeing it in operation.
00:56:47And normally, with this particular one I'm involved in,
00:56:56it's normally damn hard work, as you guys are saying,
00:56:59going out there and getting it.
00:57:01I have to remember my first ANCAL sale for loyalty programs.
00:57:05It took three years to do it.
00:57:07I can't remember how many appointments I had,
00:57:09but then it was out there. It was fantastic.
00:57:12But with this one, I go to people, and everyone says,
00:57:16where have you been? You're helping me.
00:57:19I've got the industry introducing me to people,
00:57:22and there's such a, you know, they say,
00:57:25why haven't people done it before?
00:57:28I don't have a problem seeing teach and bring in stores.
00:57:31They both want to do it. It's just amazing.
00:57:34And I just want to see it work for those guys
00:57:36who we're doing it a better way for them.
00:57:40Excellent. And Tony, I might just ask you a quick question
00:57:43for anybody in the room or watching the live stream
00:57:46who wants to start up a business and get their...
00:57:52I see Ash and Andrew shaking their head saying don't do it.
00:57:55But what would be your advice to that person
00:57:57who just needs that push to get started?
00:58:00I think it's the passion.
00:58:03It's having an idea and then seeing it up there.
00:58:07That's what drives you.
00:58:09And it's always hard work, a lot harder than you thought.
00:58:13It always takes longer, but just seeing it working,
00:58:16I think that's what you do it for.
00:58:18Yeah, and it's evident from just listening to all of you
00:58:22and knowing other founders.
00:58:24It's really the passion that keeps you going
00:58:26because without that, it is bloody hard yakka
00:58:29and you're not going to get to see the end of your hard work.
00:58:32So thank you for sharing that.
00:58:34Ash, from your perspective, how important is an event
00:58:38and a platform like Pitch to Paddock
00:58:41and at an opportunity or at a field day like Farmfest
00:58:46to getting your message out there and your product out there?
00:58:49It is so critical.
00:58:51And we've already had so many amazing conversations
00:58:54just in the half hour before this when we arrived.
00:58:57And I think these innovations that happen in industries,
00:59:01often they do come from insiders who have maybe a background
00:59:05in technology or in marketing or something
00:59:08that isn't traditionally industry-related,
00:59:11but they still need that industry experience.
00:59:14They need those insights along the journey at every step.
00:59:17So being able to come to places like this
00:59:19where every exhibitor has been so open and enthusiastic
00:59:23about sharing their thoughts,
00:59:25sharing, kind of working together towards a solution,
00:59:28I think it's so critical to ensure that you're encouraging outsiders
00:59:33to move into any given space.
00:59:35So in this, obviously, particularly agriculture,
00:59:38Farmfest has been just like a godsend to us.
00:59:41We love it so much already.
00:59:42Fantastic.
00:59:43And really, that's heartwarming to hear
00:59:45because it's the reason why we do it.
00:59:47It's often trying to provide that connectivity.
00:59:49And it's great to hear you've already experienced the benefit
00:59:52of a platform like Pitch to Paddock at Farmfest.
00:59:55So thank you.
00:59:56Andrew, just a final quick question from you.
01:00:00On behalf of your fellow co-founders,
01:00:03if there's one thing that anybody watching the live stream
01:00:06or indeed here at the Elders Pavilion could do to help
01:00:09either yourselves or another start-up that's in the agri sector
01:00:13or beyond, what would it be?
01:00:16I think the best thing is just having an introduction call
01:00:26where there's no pressure.
01:00:28There's no, oh, I can help you this way or I can sell you this
01:00:31or you can sell me that and we can make stuff happen.
01:00:34I think just that first introduction call where you introduce yourself
01:00:37and say, this is what I found interesting about what you were talking about.
01:00:41This is perhaps what I find more interesting or whatever.
01:00:45This is where I think I could help and just take it a bit slowly
01:00:48because I find a lot of conversations start and then burn up
01:00:52on re-entry very quickly because there's a mismatch in temperatures
01:00:56or a mismatch in expectations.
01:00:58So have that introduction call and get some stuff out of the way first
01:01:02around expectations and lower them and just build a network.
01:01:07And that's very valuable for early stage founders
01:01:10because we don't then feel the pressure to be continually updating
01:01:14another person who may or may not end up being useful or whatever.
01:01:20But then from your side also understand that we don't need a mate
01:01:25at this stage.
01:01:26We need someone with a commercial thing and hopefully deliver something.
01:01:30So, yeah, I think temperature matching on an introduction call
01:01:34would be the thing that sets most relationships up very well.
01:01:38Thanks, Andrew, and I can echo that from my own experience.
01:01:42So please, if you are watching this live stream or to anybody
01:01:46that is here in the pavilion, please feel free to reach out
01:01:49to any of the guys or any other founder that you know.
01:01:52And as Andrew said, try and facilitate an introduction
01:01:55or introduce yourself to the guys.
01:01:57I'm sure they'll appreciate it and certainly will help them progress
01:02:01their idea, their invention to the next stage.
01:02:04It's often through conversations that you get to your first customer
01:02:08or your next customer, and that's really what an early stage
01:02:11business needs more than anything.
01:02:13Without a customer, you don't have a business.
01:02:15And when you've got customers, it's easier to attract the capital.
01:02:18So it's great to hear that.
01:02:19Please give the guys a big round of applause.
01:02:21APPLAUSE
01:02:26Yes, thank you.
01:02:29If you are interested in investing in any of these three amazing inventions
01:02:35and inventors, please feel free to use this QR code
01:02:40to enquire and express your interest to invest into these start-ups.
01:02:46I'll just leave that up there for another minute.
01:02:53Excellent.
01:02:55And now, for the moment we have all been waiting for,
01:03:00I am very pleased to be able to ask Lupe Prada from ACM Agri,
01:03:09who is the Head of Marketing, and one of our judges this afternoon
01:03:13to announce today's Pitch to Paddock winner at Elders Farm Fest.
01:03:23Thanks, everyone, for your wonderful pitches.
01:03:26Really incredible stuff, really well presented,
01:03:29really well thought through.
01:03:30It was a very, very hard decision.
01:03:32But I'd like to announce the winner as Andrew Pegley from Carbonaut.
01:03:36APPLAUSE
01:03:38Congratulations.
01:03:39Please come up, Andrew.
01:03:50We'll also take a couple of photos at the end.
01:03:55Congratulations, Andrew.
01:03:57And thank you very much to ACM Agri for sponsoring today's Pitch to Paddock prize.
01:04:04Andrew takes home a $10,000 equity-free media contract prize.
01:04:09That's in advertising and editorial, as well as the opportunity
01:04:13to showcase Carbonaut at events like Farm Fest, at the Elders Farm Fest next year.
01:04:19What a great prize, courtesy of the team at ACM Agri.
01:04:22A big thank you to you.
01:04:25And also a big thank you to Elders for hosting us here at the Elders Farm Fest Pavilion,
01:04:31and many thanks to Mark McNamee representing Elders.
01:04:34So thank you very much.
01:04:36On that really happy note, it's a big, hearty congratulations
01:04:41to all of the founders and start-ups that pitched today,
01:04:44and again to the winner, Andrew and Carbonaut.
01:04:47Well done, and all the very best in your future endeavours.
01:04:51Thank you, everyone, for joining us at Pitch to Paddock, Elders Farm Fest.
01:04:55It's been a wonderful event, and I'm grateful for your participation.
01:04:59Please stay in touch and have a great afternoon.