News
Ten horticulture innovators selected for Australian-Grown Innovation Build Program
Publication date: April 10, 2026
Hort Innovation Frontiers, in partnership with Startupbootcamp, is pleased to announce the ten innovators selected for the upcoming Australian-Grown Innovation Build Program.
The Build Program marks the next stage of the Australian-Grown Innovation pathway, supporting promising solutions to move from concept development into practical testing with industry. Across the program, participants will work with growers, supply-chain businesses, mentors and sector partners to validate their solutions, gather real-world feedback and explore pathways for adoption.
This year’s Build cohort brings together a strong mix of growers, startups and industry-led innovators working on solutions for some of horticulture’s most pressing challenges, including weather risk, crop insurance, automation, irrigation, waste recovery, value-added production, supply-chain transparency and on-farm infrastructure.
Anthony Kachenko, General Manager of Production & Sustainability at Hort Innovation, emphasised the importance of grounding innovation in real-world outcomes for growers: “Moving from idea to implementation is where real value for growers is created. The Build Program is about taking promising solutions and putting them to the test in real production environments, so we can understand what works, what doesn’t, and what’s needed to support adoption at scale.
“What’s particularly encouraging is the number of grower-led and industry-informed innovations coming through this cohort. It reflects a strong shift towards solutions that are shaped by real challenges on-farm - whether that’s managing climate risk, improving resource efficiency or strengthening supply chain resilience.”
Seven of the 10 selected innovators have progressed from the Incubate Program, where they refined their ideas through customer discovery, validation and commercialisation support. Their progression into Build highlights the strength of early-stage innovation emerging through the Australian-Grown Innovation pathway, and the potential for grower-led ideas to become practical, market-ready solutions.
Over the coming weeks, participants will work closely with industry partners to test assumptions, strengthen their business models and understand what is required to support uptake across farms and supply chains.
Meet the Build cohort
Australian Farm Robotics: Developing a robotic banana de-handing system using computer vision and machine learning to improve safety and scalability for Australian banana growers.
Cavicam: Creating high-accuracy on-plant sensors that detect real-time water needs, bringing research-grade intelligence into a farm-ready precision irrigation system.
CForge Pty Ltd: Building a modular on-farm system that converts waste into liquid fertiliser, water and energy, helping growers reduce waste costs and recover resources on-site.
FarmCast Weather: Turning fragmented weather information into hyperlocal, actionable insights to support better field decisions around spray timing, disease risk and on-farm operations.
GasSan: Commercialising a dry gas-based process that integrates into food operations to reduce contamination risks and extend shelf life for high-risk and export fresh produce.
Insurable: Co-designing parametric crop insurance products with growers, providing automatic payouts after weather-triggered events to support faster recovery and cashflow certainty.
Lush Lychees: Developing Australia’s first premium preserved whole lychee product, turning second-grade fruit into a year-round retail and export opportunity.
Melons Australia: Exploring mobile, on-farm primary processing units that convert oversupplied and out-of-spec melons into manufacturer-ready ingredients.
Realfoodprice: Building an anonymous data platform that reveals true fresh produce pricing from farm gate to consumer, helping growers benchmark fairly and industry bodies advocate with evidence.
Sunnybrae Farm: Developing a durable recycled-poly trellising system to replace timber posts, reducing post rot and labour while supporting heavy dragon fruit crops.
Get involved
The Australian-Grown Innovation program supports growers, producers and horticulture supply-chain businesses to explore challenges, develop ideas and build solutions with the potential to create real impact across the sector.
For those with an early-stage idea or a challenge worth exploring, the journey begins with Engage - a series of open masterclasses designed to introduce practical problem-solving, innovation and commercialisation approaches.
The program is funded and delivered by Hort Innovation Frontiers, Startupbootcamp and industry partners, making it free of charge for participants.
For more information or to register your interest in future Australian-Grown Innovation opportunities, visit: https://www.frontiers.au/agi/
