Beanstalk AgTech

05/06/2026

Last week the Beanstalk AgTech team was in Lao PDR, with Natalia Rebollo Sampedro and Justin Ahmed delivering workshops for local business owners and introducing them to a new Business Diagnostic Tool, built in partnership between Beanstalk and ADB Frontier.

ADB Frontier is the Asia Development Bank’s market-building platform that is pioneering innovative financing to catalyze risk capital for underserved enterprises in frontier markets across Asia Pacific, with around 90% of the businesses involved in agricultural production and processing. These businesses are often capital starved, with funding and support from ADB Frontier enabling them to unlock their next phase of growth.

ADB Frontier commissioned Beanstalk to build a Diagnostic tool for SMEs that it has supported, identifying the SME’s specific challenges and a path forward to reach the businesses’ full potential. The SMEs ADB Frontier supports are scaling fast and busy managing their day-to-day business, so ADB Frontier needed an easy and efficient way for the business owners to assess their current business, identify priority areas and receive targeted support.

Beanstalk’s Diagnostic tool assesses 20 indicators of business growth and provides SMEs with a clear picture of where their business currently stands, their strengths, and areas to improve; specific to their industry, customer segments, and the markets in which they are active. Importantly, the Diagnostic also gives business owners and their investors a roadmap they can action to address their challenges, including steps they can take, resources to utilise and experts to contact, to help fuel their growth.

Natalia and Justin have been in Laos piloting the Diagnostic tool with dozens of local business owners, as part of an ADB-sponsored conference focused on financing and supporting growth for Laotian micro, small and medium enterprises and women entrepreneurs.

04/06/2026

A Landing Pad designed for grain growers in Western Australia is not a template for berry producers in Victoria or Tasmania.

A program that worked in India, where rapid digital scaling and mass-market incentives drove adoption, will not translate to Vietnam's smallholder networks or Australia's large-scale farming systems.

Landing Pads are highly customisable, and well designed Landing Pads use this flexibility to ensure that operating context is reflected in the program design.

Without this consideration, programs become structurally misaligned with the industries and regions they are meant to serve.

Article two of Beanstalk's Landing Pad series works through the variables influencing design logic that separates effective agricultural Landing Pads from those that aren't.

Read the article here: https://www.beanstalkagtech.com/landingpads

20/04/2026

Last week, Beanstalk’s team hosted a strong turnout at the SG AgriFood Tech community meetup.

👉 Singapore-based Project Lead, Andrea Coello, presented a session on “The Opportunity for AgriTech Investment in Southeast and South Asia”, drawing on Beanstalk’s latest research with Briter, funded by Omnivore. Andrea unpacked the opportunity to hand: agriculture contributes around 15% of GDP in Southeast Asia and employs up to 40% of the workforce, with digitalisation projected to unlock over $90B in annual GDP gains by 2033.

The discussion also reinforced Singapore’s role as the region’s key AgriTech hub, both as a funding centre and as a base for scaling ventures across Southeast and South Asia.

👏 A big thank you to Andrea for leading the conversation and to everyone who joined us for an engaged and insightful evening.

🚀 Find out more about the AgriTech Investment Opportunity in Southeast and South Asia here: https://www.beanstalkagtech.com/reports-and-publications

19/11/2025

Beanstalk AgTech's Head of Venture Studio Marcus Agnew spoke to The Land's Elizabeth Anderson about the Drought Venture Studio and its systematic support for early-stage innovators to help navigate the unique challenges of agtech commercialisation, including the notorious 'valley of death'.

He also spoke to how the innovators find their way into agtech, bringing ideas from adjacent industries, such as mining or energy, that could be applicable to agriculture. "Or maybe they're a frustrated farmer who knows a way to do something better but they're not quite sure how to get a tech idea out into the ecosystem, and we support them with that."

➡️ Read the story here: https://lnkd.in/ge-dGBVR

Agtech funding has had some extreme highs and some lows in the past few years. But what does the future look like? Beanstalk AgTech
Read more: https://www.theland.com.au/story/9085247/

12/11/2025

🌾 Evidence to underpin Indonesia's AgTech transformation**

Yesterday, Beanstalk Director Justin Ahmed participated in the Forum Teknologi Pertanian Digital Indonesia at Universitas Brawijaya as part of the ongoing Beanstalk led project: **Evidence to underpin Indonesia's AgTech transformation.**

📘 **Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and implemented in collaboration with Indonesian Center for Agricultural Socio Economic and Policy Studies (ICASEPS) and Universitas Brawijaya, the project aims to strengthen Indonesia’s use of Digital AgTech for sustainable and inclusive growth for small holder farmers.

In his remarks, Justin emphasised that digital transformation must begin with empowering farmers to use technology, rather than developing tools that look good but aren’t farmer-friendly. By comparing the smallholder journey with digital tools versus traditional approaches, Justin highlighted how data can improve decision-making, access to finance and markets, and continuous learning.

He also underscored the need to collaborate through small pilots to test what works across different farming systems and farmer capacities.

The forum brought together startups, farmers, government representatives, and academia to strengthen collaboration around smart farming, IoT, and data-driven solutions for a more sustainable and efficient agricultural sector in Indonesia.

05/11/2025

Last week Beanstalk Director William Taing was in to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding with OITI - Open Innovation and Technopreneur Institute in Vietnam, formalising our collaboration with OITI and the National Agency for , and and the Vietnam Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam.

All parties bring an open innovation mindset, focused on collaborating across sectors, regions, and communities to create solutions that are practical, scalable, and meaningful for farmers and rural livelihoods.

Beanstalk is excited to be working alongside our valued partners in Vietnam to deliver on our shared ambitions to drive innovation for impact across agriculture and regional Vietnam.

31/10/2025

🌱 **Beanstalk AgTech at the Green Economy Mission to Sustainability X (SX), Thailand**

Earlier this month, Beanstalk AgTech Director, Justin Ahmed, joined the **Australia–Southeast Asia Business Exchange (SEABX) Green Economy Mission to Thailand**, led by Austrade.

Thailand’s innovation ecosystem is thriving with strong university-led deeptech, forward-thinking agribusinesses, and a clear appetite for collaboration. We were particularly impressed by the **bilateral partnerships** forming between Thai and Australian organisations to commercialise technologies across the Indo-Pacific.

30/10/2025

🌾 Catch us at **Deal Fridays: Agrifood Horizon and Beyond** in Singapore! 🌾

Beanstalk AgTech Director William Taing will join a fireside chat at a dealmaking event organised by Enterprise Singapore and supported by Nurasa, exploring how cross-border partnerships*can help scale agrifood innovation across Asia.

With experience leading Beanstalk’s work across , , , , and , William will speak to the regional collaboration needed to transform agrifood value chains.

📅 3 November 2025

📍 Nurasa’s Food Tech Innovation Centre, Singapore

🔗 Register here: https://www.gevme.com/deal-fridays-agrifood-horizon-and-beyond

27/10/2025

🌾 Strengthening Digital in

Singapore-based Project Lead, Andrea Coello, is leading an initiative commissioned by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

🚀 The project, delivered by Beanstalk AgTech in collaboration with the Center for Agriculture Socio Economic and Policy Studies (Indonesian Center for Agricultural Socio Economic and Policy Studies (ICASEPS) and Universitas Brawijaya of Brawijaya, is supporting the Government of Indonesia to identify actions that will drive the deployment of AgTech in Indonesia.

Earlier this month, the team:

1️⃣ Met with part of the Agriculture team at B A P P E N A S (Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning) to ensure project alignment with Indonesia’s mid- and long-term agricultural priorities.

2️⃣ Held an internal workshop to discuss key takeaways and insights from interviews, surveys, and field visits with , , extension officers, training centres, knowledge institutions, and policymakers.

3️⃣ Delivered a hands-on AI tools workshop for staff at the Ministry of Agriculture, led by Dias Satria and Wahida Maghraby from our team.

Together, these efforts are helping shape a roadmap for inclusive, data-driven, and impactful digital transformation in Indonesia’s agriculture sector. 🌾🤝

21/10/2025

🌏 Strengthening AgTech connections between and 🌾

We’re excited to share that William Taing 陈财喜, Director at Beanstalk AgTech, has been appointed to the Advisory Committee for the Australia–India Tech Connections Program.

🚀 This initiative supports Australian AgTech innovators to connect with India’s rapidly modernising and , driving collaboration, capability, and innovation across both countries.

🌾 At Beanstalk, we’re proud to contribute to efforts that strengthen partnerships, enable sustainable and digital agriculture, and unlock opportunities for agri-food systems transformation across the Indo-Pacific.

👉 Learn more and apply for the AgTech in India Program. Expression of Interest now open: https://lnkd.in/gB_Ut3j9

The program is supported by the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR) and delivered by Asialink Business, in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry(CII).