AgTech Seeds Cohort 1 Case Study – EHydroponics

Among the first AgTech Seeds cohort were trio Adam Wang, Ke Ma and Jeff Peng who are developing vertical hydroponic technology with intelligent growth algorithms and IoT sensors to set new standards for fully controlled agriculture.

Ms Ma said the program gave her team the chance to review their product. 

“We were encouraged to test our assumptions and validate our ideas, which led us to make some changes to our original business plan,” Ms Ma said. “It put us in a much better position to produce an improved MVP.

Ms Ma said the AgTech Seeds program, which covers value proposition design, minimum viable experiments, business models, marketing and building your narrative, provided a clear framework for startups in their early stage of development.

“The AgTech Seeds program was really well structured, and the team delivering it was extremely supportive, enthusiastic and professional,” Ms Ma said. “It provided us as founders with the opportunity to learn from really talented people from various sectors in business and agriculture.”

Ms Ma said the other benefit of the program was the access to the industry.

“The program provided us with a really good platform to build our network,” Ms Ma said. “We got to share our passion and our vision with people from across the agriculture industry, people we wouldn’t have met on our own.”

Since completing the AgTech Seeds program, co-founder Jeff Peng said the E Hydroponics team has established the business on a site north-west of Melbourne, with three polytunnels each 1000 square metres.

They have had their first harvest of 1.5 tonnes of hydroponic tomatoes selling to restaurants and supermarkets and have received positive feedback.

They used the $5000 grant provided through the AgTech Seeds program for software development and to stress test their sensors, and have secured early stage investment.

Jeff said they are now looking to expand their offering, adding mushroom production to the business.