LaunchVic reveals $1 million Hugh Victor McKay fund for agtech startups

LaunchVic, in partnership with Agriculture Victoria, has rolled out a series of initiatives for agtech startups. Central to this announcement is the introduction of the $1 million Hugh Victor McKay Fund, which is now open for applications.

The combined efforts of the two organisations aim to provide a structured support mechanism to further the growth of Australia’s agtech sector.

What is the new Hugh Victor McKay Fund

The Hugh Victor McKay Fund is a sidecar fund that is set to invest between $100,000 and $200,000 in at least five early-stage startups over the next 12 months. Named after Victorian inventor Hugh Victor McKay, who patented the original combine harvester in the 1880s, the fund aims to support innovations in the agricultural sector.

Following a model similar to LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, the Hugh Victor McKay Fund will co-invest alongside private sector investors. This co-investment strategy requires private investors to match the government’s contribution at a minimum 2:1 ratio.

Matthew Pryor, founder of Tenacious Ventures and a member of the fund’s investment committee, shared insights about the fund’s focus.

“Many agtech startups delve into hardware and deep tech, which can be important for the agrifood sector transition. The initial stages of growth for these ventures often require significant capital,” Pryor said.

The investment committee is also made up of Susan Oliver (Scale Investors), Amanda Derham (Aultmore) and Ilona Charles (shilo.people).

Additionally, LaunchVic disclosed the names of the first seven grant recipients from the AgTech Grants program. This program provides $50,000 equity-free grants to selected AgTech founders.

The grantees include:

• AEI
• Air Agri
• Ambit Robotics
• Farmo
• Engenia Solutions
• Mobble
• Rubens Technologies

Dr. Kate Cornick, LaunchVic’s CEO, spoke about the collaborative efforts with Agriculture Victoria, highlighting the range of support available to founders at different stages of their startup journey.

“Aspiring founders can undertake pre-accelerator programs to test their startup ideas, obtain a grant to build their capability and access seed funding when ready to scale,” Cornick said.

Victoria’s startup ecosystem growth

Victoria boasts more than 3,200 startups, scaleups and unicorns — one-third of which have received support from LaunchVic.

The current enterprise value of Victoria’s entire startup ecosystem currently stands at $91 billion, but it is on par with where Tel Aviv’s sat in 2016.

Melbourne’s ecosystem alone has risen to $36.9 billion, up from just $2.21 billion in 2016. In fact, the startup creation rate in Melbourne over the recent four-year span has surpassed many globally recognised entrepreneurial hubs, including the likes of Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Amsterdam.

In 2022 the Victorian startup and scaleup ecosystem support 52,000 jobs, surpassing jobs provided by the Victorian electricity, gas, and water industries combined.