Goodbye AgTech7!

A week ago, we bid farewell to AgTech7, an EU project that has been a part of the EBAN history for the past three years. To finalise this fantastic project, we gathered in Piraeus (Greece) with the rest of our incredible partners. Our biggest thanks go out to: University of Novi Sad, Biosense Institute , Maastricht University , South East European Research Centre- SEERC, Neuropublic SA, Yasar University , Camli Yem Besicilik San. Ve Tic. A.Ş. We really appreciate these three years of cooperation and we hope to work together again in the future!

But what was Agtech7 all about?

You can find out by reading our in-depth article ‘’There is an AgTech7 in my Salad – How did it get there?’’ to find out how this project ended up on your plate and why that is a good thing! But in case you just want a quick refresh, here it is: in order to address a significant gap in the agri-tech market—the absence of interdisciplinary knowledge—AgTech7 was conceptualised in 2019 by a consortium of academic and corporate partners from throughout Europe. In actuality, engineers frequently overlook business and agricultural expertise, just as businesspeople frequently overlook engineering innovation and agricultural expertise and agriculture specialists frequently overlook engineering innovation and business expertise.

What has AgTech7 achieved so far? 

Since 2020, the consortium and its network of specialists (including professors, investors, business owners, incubator managers, and public officials) have established the course curriculum, tested it at special local gatherings (Deep Dive workshops), created the modules, taught them, and published them online on the Sakai Platform.

We are very glad to say that our course has reached the lucky number 777 in terms of students active on the platform! We were also positively surprised by the number of self-evaluations that surpassed 2K! If you are interested in becoming part of the AgTech7 story, you can still participate in the classes, take the self-evaluation courses, and get your certificate – the courses were so successful that they will be kept on the platform!

On top of the classes we at EBAN along with our consortium partners organised multiple events in order to raise awareness about agritech amongst angel investors. The series of events organised by EBAN  was called “Investing in agrifood” and was composed of 1 in person event during the 2022 EAIS, 1 webinar and 1 pitching event.

The speakers at our live event at the European Angel Investment Summit 2022 agreed that modern food systems need to change to address societal problems like population growth and poor nutrition as well as environmental problems like food waste, water shortages, and greenhouse gas emissions (few startups, high failure rate for market mismatch). Several innovations are being implemented in the domains of alternative proteins, crop inputs and ag-biotech, robotics and farm automation, novel farms and are just waiting for investments.

Additionally, it was revealed at the webinar “Why You Should Be Investing in AgriFood” that investors avoid the sector because entrepreneurs demand investments too soon, while investors lack the essential technological skills. Organising webinars to educate investors about agrifood (the AgTech7 curriculum may be a nice place to start) could be one method to encourage early stage investments in this industry. After that, one could establish a partnership with corporates from the start and begin co-investing with them.

Our final AgTech7 event, a startup showcase, demonstrated that there are numerous issues facing the agri-food industry that can be solved in various ways, that there are workable solutions in Europe, and that entrepreneurs need to be pushed to sharpen their presentations and become more investment-ready.

Thank you AgTech7! 

Based on the results of our events and the feedback we got from the course participants, we estimate that AgTech7 is a great tool for entrepreneurs and investors that are engaging in the agritech market. We are proud of having participated in its creation and we are so excited to see how many agritech entrepreneurs and investors it can aid in their journeys. If you want to attend the MOOC created by AgTech7, take the self-evaluation tests, and get your certificate, you can still do it by going here. 

However, we do not think our work here is done: As useful as Agetch7 is, it cannot be the only one tool for entrepreneurs and investors. It needs to be accompanied by more focused sessions for investors and entrepreneurs separately. On top of this, a space for agrifood investors and entrepreneurs to meet each other needs to be created. We look forward to seeing these things happen to advance the agritech sector (and maybe participate in creating them). 😉

About AgTech7:

AgTech7 is a European project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union that stimulates innovation along the entire farm-to-fork food-chain by developing a multidisciplinary course covering technical and business subjects such as Earth Observation and IoT, Data Analytics, Financial Innovation and Lean Startup models.