Back to Blog

Founder Five in 5: Dr Logan Wait | Earth First Food

Meet Dr Logan Wait, founder of Earth First Food, one of 22 ventures in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 cohort. We caught up with Logan for five quick questions about Earth First Food and what he hopes to get from his time with Sprout.1. Tell us about Earth First Food. What are you building?Earth First started as a way to sell meat from our family farm. We now make other farmers’ dreams come true: selling their own meat direct to market and keeping the margin on the farm, where it belongs. Weâ€...

Founder Five in 5: Boveto

Meet Bryce Tod, Caroline Murray and Frazer Murray, the team behind Boveto, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort. We caught up with the team for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Boveto and what they hope to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator. 1. Tell us about Boveto. What are you building?Boveto is about making animal health recording and treatment management easier for farmers. We're building a voic...

Founder Five in 5: Ryan Luckman | DAGI

Meet Ryan Luckman, Founder and CEO of DAGI, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with Ryan for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about DAGI (Drench and Grazing Integration App) and what he hopes to achieve from his time in the Sprout Accelerator. 1. Tell us about DAGI. What are you building?I'm a vet, and for 19 years I've watched sheep farmers battle worms. Worms cost them growth, production and, too often, dead...

UK Agritech Innovators Return to NZ

Six UK agritech companies return to New Zealand this October for the second in-market immersion of the Innovate UK 2026 NZ AgriTech Global Incubator Program, delivered in partnership with Sprout Agritech.The cohort first visited in June, timed to coincide with New Zealand National Fieldays, for site visits and introductions across the sector. Since then, the founders have continued with online content and one-to-one mentoring from Sprout mentors.The October visit runs for two weeks from 12-24 Oc...

Founder Five in 5: Brendan Vercoe | The Gut Comfort Company

Meet Brendan Vercoe, Founder of The Gut Comfort Company, one of 22 ventures taking part in the Spring26 Cohort of the Sprout Accelerator.We caught up with Brendan for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about The Gut Comfort Company and what the venture hopes to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator.1. Tell us about The Gut Comfort Company. What are you building?Gut Comfort turns New Zealand kiwifruit that doesn’t make export grade into a natural, wholefood pr...

Founder Five in 5: Nathan and Lois Smith | Vat Guard

Meet Nathan and Lois Smith, the team behind Vat Guard. They are one of 22 ventures taking part in the Spring26 Cohort of the Sprout Accelerator.We caught up with them for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Vat Guard and what the venture hopes to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator.1. Tell us about Vat Guard. What are you building?Vat Guard was born from a problem we faced on our own dairy farm. After experiencing how one simple human error could contami...

Founder Five in 5: Acquasol

Meet Jim Barlow, Co-owner and Director, Locky Mulholland, Co-owner and CEO, and Alistair Bell, Group General Manager, Acquasol. This group make up the team behind Acquasol, one of 22 ventures participating in the Spring26 Cohort of the Sprout Accelerator.We caught up with the team for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Acquasol and what the venture hopes to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator. 1. Tell us about Acquasol. What are you building?A...

Founder Five in 5: Raymond Dobbe | Carbon-Kai

Meet Raymond Dobbe, Founder and Managing Director at Carbon-Kai, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with Raymond for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Carbon-Kai and what he hopes to achieve from his time in the Sprout Accelerator. 1. Tell us about Carbon-Kai. What are you building?Carbon-Kai is an organic daily feed supplement for ruminant animals, focusing initially on dairy cows. It is a specially engi...

Founder Five in 5: Shivani Nardekar | Rooted Harmony

Meet Shivani Nardekar, Founder and Food Technologist at Rooted Harmony, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with Shivani for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Rooted Harmony and what she hopes to achieve from her time in the Sprout Accelerator. 1. Tell us about Rooted Harmony. What are you building?Rooted Harmony is New Zealand’s first Ayurvedic wellness brand building toward oral thin film technology: d...

Founder Five in 5: HoloCrop

Meet Richie Ellingham, Oliver Batchelor, Matt Mattar, and Richard Green at HoloCrop, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with the HoloCrop team for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about HoloCrop and what they hope to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator.1. Tell us about HoloCrop. What are you building?After talking with more than 50 fruit growers just before harvest, we found huge uncertainty around wh...

Founder Five in 5: Paul Shale and Dr Abishek Sriramulu | ruru

Meet Paul Shale, co-founder and CEO, and Dr Abishek Sriramulu, co-founder and CTO of ruru, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with Paul and Abishek for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about ruru and what they hope to achieve from their time in the Sprout Accelerator.1. Tell us about ruru. What are you building?We are building a system that helps supermarkets know how much life fresh goods have, and therefore where...

Founder Five in 5: Jade Luxton | Sterineedle

Meet Jade Luxton, Founder of Sterineedle, one of the 22 ventures participating in the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort.We caught up with Jade for a quick-fire five questions in five minutes to learn more about Sterineedle and what she hopes to achieve from her time in the Sprout Accelerator.1. Tell us about Sterineedle. What are you building?Sterineedle is a needle sterilising holster designed to make cleaning vaccination needles between animals quick and easy.The idea came from seeing the gap...

Sprout Welcomes Its Largest Sprout Accelerator Cohort

Sprout is proud to introduce the Sprout Accelerator Spring26 Cohort, bringing together 22 ventures all working to advance technology and innovation across the agrifood value chain.The largest Sprout Accelerator cohort to date reflects the exciting level of ideas and expertise emerging from Aotearoa’s innovation ecosystem.From animal health, farm intelligence and biosecurity to functional foods, climate resilience, sustainable materials and new production technologies, the Spring26 ventures are...

You Don't Know a Market Until You've Stood in the Paddock.

Reflections from the Innovate UK 2026 Global Incubator Programme's First New Zealand Visit, Hosted by Sprout.There's a particular kind of learning that only happens on the ground.You can read every export statistic, watch every webinar, and study every market report. But nothing quite prepares you for standing among 30 year old vines in a kiwifruit orchard in the Bay of Plenty; listening to a farmer explain why they are open to adopting technology in the milking shed; or sitting in a methane cha...

You Have to See It to Believe It: Reflections from Sprout Agritech's Thailand Agrifood Innovation International Delegation

In a world where market intelligence is available at the click of a button, it can be tempting to believe that understanding a new market can happen from behind a screen.But after five days immersed in Thailand's agrifood ecosystem, one message resonated with every participant in Sprout Agritech's recent international delegation:You have to see it to believe it....

Meet the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme

Kylah Morrison, Head of Programmes and Partnerships at Sprout, chats with Andy Thomson from CountryWide Connect about the InnovateUK Global Incubator Programme....

UK Agritech Innovators Heading to New Zealand to Road-Test the Future of Farming

Auckland, NZSix UK agritech innovators developing technologies spanning AI-enabled livestock systems, digital-twin carbon tracking, circular agriculture, sustainable horticulture and on-farm energy generation is heading to New Zealand in 2026 as part of the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme (GIP), creating new opportunities for local industry, investors and research institutions to collaborate on the future of food and farming as they seek to cement investment, partnerships, pilots and rese...

Scanabull raises $1.1M to bring instant cattle weighing to NZ’s beef supply chain

New Zealand agritech startup Scanabull has developed a world-first system capable of estimating cattle weight instantly using a 3D camera on a phone or a custom hardware device, with AI processing running directly on the device (edge computing). Promising to weigh cattle in one second without the crush or guesswork, the technology provides meat processors and farmers with accurate real-time data about on-farm production.Founded in April 2024 by Dan Bull who is now joined by Co-founders combining...

From New Zealand to India (Hyderabad, Telangana): What the Sprout India Delegation Revealed About the Future of Agrifood and Biotech Innovation

In February 2026, Sprout Agritech led an international delegation of New Zealand founders, researchers, and innovators to Hyderabad, Telangana, India - one of Asia’s fastest-growing hubs for biotechnology, agrifood, animal (and human) health and life sciences.Over five days, our delegation explored the intersections of agrifoodtech, animal health, biotechnology, and biomanufacturing. We attended BioAsia 2026, toured Genome Valley, ICRISAT, IIL, and met with researchers, entrepreneurs, and poli...

Cellular horticulture startup Forever Harvest raises $1.2m to secure future fruit and nut supply for global food companies

Forever Harvest has announced a NZ$1.2 million pre-seed funding round to accelerate the development of cultivated fruit and nut ingredients for the global food and beverage industry.The investment is being led by early-stage agrifood investor Sprout Agritech, supported by the Bioeconomy Science Institute and Callaghan Innovation’s Deep Tech Incubator programme....

Gaining Ground Through Better Partnerships

Bringing a new product to life is never easy, especially in the world of agritech and biotech, where ideas often begin on the farm or in the lab. The journey from concept to commercial product is filled with technical unknowns, competing priorities, and decisions that can make or break a startup’s ability to scale. For founders in the Sprout Accelerator programme, having the right support can make all the difference.That’s where Sprout Founder Support Partner, Blender plays a key role. As a ...

Meet the Founder: Rhize Analytics

A good pasture can look healthy from the top, yet the real story is happening out of sight, keeping farmers and growers quite literally in the dark. For Rhize Analytics, the mission began with the frustrating reality of not knowing what was happening below ground. Rural professionals, farmers and researchers know roots drive production, crop resilience, and environmental performance, but they have struggled to measure what’s happening below ground quickly and reliably. Meet the founders of Rh...

Meet the Founder: NutrAureus

Omega-3s might be tiny molecules, but they pack a big punch. Powering everything from brain performance to heart health and helping combat obesity, they are essential for keeping human bodies in top shape. Yet, traditional fish-based supply covers only 30% of global demand, leaving most people deficient and many consumers wary of taste, allergens, and sustainability questions. Surprisingly to many, fish don’t actually make Omega-3s. It all starts with microalgae, the original producers of ome...

Meet the Founder: BioChroma Tech

The era of synthetic food colours is under pressure. With landmark decisions this year in the US from the FDA and major retailers like Walmart to phase out artificial colours, the food industry is in a race for natural solutions. The problem? Natural colours are notoriously unstable and often fade during food manufacturing and storage. That's the exact challenge BioChroma Tech is built to solve. They are re-engineering nature's colours to create vivid, high-performance colours that are cost-effe...

Meet the Founder: ZEDLAB

Food waste isn’t just what ends up in our kitchen bins, it starts long before that. In orchards and packhouses across Aotearoa, near-perfect fruit is often rejected, not because it’s damaged, but because it ripens too quickly to survive storage, transit, or time on the retail shelf. That everyday loss sparked a simple question for founders Evie Tan and Zac Taylor: What if packaging could do more than just identify fruit? What if it could help it stay fresher, naturally?That question became t...