New Zealand-based agritech accelerator, Sprout, has identified the Innovation Arena as a key place to look for innovation in the Irish agritech sector at this year’s National Ploughing Championships.

James Bell-Booth from Sprout said: “Agritech is a global agenda now. Finding talent that can revolutionise how our agricultural and horticultural industries perform is key to our principles.”

He added that Sprout is looking to Ireland, a country that shares many similarities in farming with New Zealand, two world-class food producers, capable of providing nutrition for 80m people.

At this year’s Innovation Arena, Sprout will be involved in the overall judging. Bell-Booth said that investments will be made, depending on projects’ potential to grow on a global scale. Sprout has the potential for an investment pool of money worth €120m, from its corporate partners. These partners include Fonterra, Gallagher and Callaghan Innovation.

Sprout will join a network of other agritech investors at the Innovation Arena this year.

Finisterre, which is already based in Ireland, has a €40m fund and The Yield Lab, which works with early-stage companies, will be looking for participants to enter their accelerator programme.

Enterprise Ireland will also announce the winners of its competitive start fund for agritech and marine.

James Maloney, who manages the Innovation Arena for Enterprise Ireland, along with its partners in the Irish Farmers Journal and the National Ploughing Association, said that the level of interest from investors is higher than in previous years. He added that this is a result of successful Irish innovation across the world by our leading agri-technology companies.