The call for the BioBoosters accelerator programme sparked a lot of interest and there were applicants from as many as 24 countries. The selections for the 2024 programme have now been made and 10 startup companies were chosen from among hundreds of evaluated companies. In selection of this year’s cohort, the focus was especially on topics related to smart farming and data management, robotics, soil and water management, as well as sustainability and carbon footprint in the food value chain.
The selected startups are:
- Ant Robotics
- Biocode
- EOD
- GeoPard Agriculture
- Groundley
- Lensor
- PerPlant
- Soil Scout
- Trabotyx
- WeedBot
The partner companies of the BioBoosters accelerator programme are excited to find out what the cooperation with the selected startup companies will result.
“The need for food production will increase by 50 percent until the year of 2050, which calls for major improvements in the efficiency and sustainability of agriculture. At Valtra, we want to help farmers with smart and sustainable farming solutions. Because of that, we are eager to invest in innovations and help startups develop and commercialize their ideas. One way of doing that is taking part in projects like BioBoosters – it’s a great opportunity for networking and testing new concepts of products and services”, says Managing Director Mikko Lehikoinen, Valtra Inc.
Innovestor’s Corporate Venturing provides the startups with coaching and investor contacts. They were impressed by the quality of the startups.
“Selections for Bioboosters 2024 programme are now done! Based on the quality of the startups selected, we can confirm that the bar was definitely high for the first ever BioBoosters accelerator programme! Together with Valtra, Neste, AGCO Power and Jamk, we are proud to be launching the first ever batch of BioBoosters 2024 startups, a team of 'Agritech Startup Allstars'”, says Matti Härkönen, Partner, Innovestor.
Neste believes that the programme will provide an opportunity to enhance sustainability in the field of agriculture.
“Neste aims to help its customers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 million tons annually by 2030 and drive the sustainable transition in industries including agriculture. BioBoosters programme as part of the Finnish Future Farm collaboration is a good opportunity for driving sustainability in the agricultural sector and to prove the value of renewable fuels in off-road use”, says Joni Pihlström, VP, B2B Sales, Marketing & Services, Neste.
AGCO Power invests significantly reducing the carbon footprint of off-road machines worldwide. Ismo Hämäläinen from AGCO Power emphasizes the importance of the new innovations for the machine and agricultural sector:
“The BioBoosters project enables getting to know new startups and potentially support them. In addition, the new innovations of the startups are an important part of the development of AGCO Power and the entire Finnish off-road machinery and agricultural sector.”
The BioBoosters accelerator programme is part of the activities of the BioBoosters by Jamk business accelerator and 'Finnish Future Farm' -project, that is funded by the Regional Council of Central Finland. In the 'Finnish Future Farm' -project, the aim is to create a physical and virtual bioeconomy and smart farming testbed environment for co-development and knowledge sharing in the Bioeconomy Campus in Saarijärvi, Central Finland. The project is run by Jamk University of Applied Sciences, and partners are Poke Vocational School, Valtra, AGCO Power, Neste and the city of Saarijärvi.
