evokeAG, Asia-Pacific’s premier agrifood innovation event, has today launched its 2026 Program and Startup cohort, featuring a dynamic mix of bold discussions, thought-provoking keynotes and groundbreaking enterprises shaping the future of agriculture.
Taking place in Melbourne on 17 to 18 February 2026, the event will host a lineup of local and international speakers from across the agrifood value chain and broader business sector to explore agriculture’s most pressing macro and micro challenges, trends and opportunities.
Over two days, speakers will dive into the uncomfortable, the uncertain and the urgently important, including what radical steps Australia must take to lead in the new AI-driven industrial revolution, whether agritech can truly shift the dial when the rain refuses to fall, and how Australian agriculture can weather a new era of volatile, geopolitically charged markets.
The program will also explore the risks and opportunities for global aquaculture’s bold vision, how deeptech and biomaterials are shaping global supply chains, the implications of growing institutional investment in Australian farmland, and the provocative question of what the agrifood investment landscape really looks like beneath the headlines.
Back by popular demand, evokeAG. 2026 will finish on the must-attend You Can’t Ask That session, where a heavy-hitting panel chosen by delegates will take on the sector’s sharpest, most difficult questions.
Speaker highlights
Highlight speakers include Craig Piggott (Founder and CEO of New Zealand agritech unicorn Halter), Ariella Heffernan-Marks (Founder and CEO of Australian women’s health tech startup Ovum AI), Harry Briggs (Partner at leading global agrifood venture capital firm Astanor Ventures) and Brad Fruth (Director of Innovation at America’s largest family-owned retail seed company Becks Hybrids).
Joshua Tepper (Founder of autonomous agriculture startup Ornata) will lead a first-of-its-kind demonstration, showcasing a driverless tractor in a working paddock, controlled remotely from Ornata’s operations centre in Melbourne.
A strong representation of producer voices will also take the stage, including Andrew Bate (Co-Founder and CEO of agricultural robotics startup SwarmFarm), agritech entrepreneur and beef producer at Sunlight Grazing Natalie Engel, Michael Vukadinovic (Owner of Pavilion Farms), Andi Lucas (Founder of hemp-based building materials startup X-Hemp), Fiona Turner (CEO and Founder of AI-powered berry yield forecasting startup Bitwise Agronomy), and Brett Hosking (President of the Victorian Farmers Federation).
Program purpose
Harriet Mellish, General Manager of AgriFutures Global Innovation Networks, said the 2026 program was designed to bring the entire agrifood ecosystem into the room.
“We’ve curated a dynamic lineup of speakers from every part of the agrifood value chain – from producers, startup founders, podcasters and investors to researchers, business leaders, government and Rural Research and Development Corporations (RDCs) – to ensure diverse perspectives are heard and real conversations take place across the whole sector.”
“As we stand on the edge of rapid technological change, evokeAG. will provide a platform for unfiltered discussions on food security, workforce challenges, climate resilience, artificial intelligence, sustainability, technology adoption, geopolitics and more. The decisions being made now will define the next decade of agriculture, and it’s essential the entire sector is part of shaping that future.”
Three core program threads
The two-day event will explore three core threads:
- Innovation & Future Technology
- Systems & Policy
- Environment & Sustainability
These threads are brought to life through evokeAG.’s signature pillars:
- Inspire + Provoke: keynote conversations and panel discussions in the Elders Plenary
- Showcase + Educate: global innovations and real-world success stories
- Connect + Collaborate: spontaneous interaction and facilitated networking to spark cross-sector partnerships
Key program highlights
- Build for the future, not the past: Positioning Australia at the front of the new industrial revolution
- Farming from the stage: A live demonstration of Ornata’s remote autonomous agriculture technology
- Breaking boundaries: How Halter is redefining livestock management globally
- How a women's health startup is redefining trust in technology
- Managing agriculture’s most important, least reliable business partner: climate
- Blue economy futures: Tales of risk, resilience and innovation
- You can’t ask that: Uncomfortable questions, honest conversations
- Startup line-up for evokeAG. 2026 revealed
Startup line-up for evokeAG. 2026 revealed
More than 50 Australian and international startups and scaleups will showcase a new generation of innovators redefining the future of agrifood technology.
The Program provides agrifood startups and scaleups with a unique platform to showcase their innovation to a global audience, attract investment, forge commercial partnerships and accelerate growth.
The 2026 Program features:
- 30 exhibitors in Startup Alley
- 10 scaleups in the Scaleup Street
- 10 international startups in the Landing Pad (a tailored program for startups entering the Australian market)
Harriet Mellish said the calibre of the cohort and depth of innovation reflect the growing momentum of the Startup Program.
“The startups selected for this year’s program are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in agrifood innovation. They’re tackling real-world challenges across food production, supply chains and sustainability, while opening new pathways for growth and resilience. Their ambition mirrors the energy of the broader ecosystem, and we’re proud to play a role in accelerating their impact.”
Representing eight countries, the 2026 cohort brings a wave of forward-thinking innovations to evokeAG., including extreme-heat crop protection, micro-scale bee harvesting, autonomous and electric machinery, insect-powered protein, circular waste solutions, plant biomanufacturing, soil intelligence and AI-driven on-farm decision-making.
Across the two-day event, startups and scaleups will bring their technologies to life on the Demo Stage sponsored by Innovate UK, with 10 ventures also selected to attend the Culinary Capital, a networking dinner to pitch their solutions to high-profile investors backed by the Food and Agribusiness Network.
evokeAG. is powered by AgriFutures Australia and funded by the Australian Government, Platinum Partner Elders, and Host State Partner Agriculture Victoria.
See the full program at evokeAG. 2026 program.
Full list of evokeAG. 2026 Startup Program cohort
Startups
- ADAR Technologies, Inc
- ALBON
- Algaesys Pty Ltd
- Aquaterra Solutions Pty Ltd
- Carbon Asset Solutions Ltd
- Cooling Crops
- Cropify Pty Ltd
- Embeint
- Eox Tractors BV
- Extraordinary Berry Company Ltd
- Farm Minerals
- Flux
- Gate 46 Pty Ltd
- GrazeMate
- HiveKeepers
- Hope Vale Foundation Ltd
- Insurable
- Jupiter Ionics
- Just Meat Protein
- Mobius Farms Pty Ltd
- OlsAro Crop Biotech AB
- Ornata Technologies PTY LTD
- People in Paddocks Pty Ltd
- Rainstick
- Rare Earth International Ltd t/a Rare Earth Global
- Ruminant Biotech Pty Ltd
- Reusably
- Solarferm
- Stoktake
- Sultech Global Innovation Corp.
- Tertiary Extracts Otautahi Ltd
- TIER IV, Inc
- TierraSpec
- Verge Ag
- YIELDX PTY LTD
- PHNXX
- VENSOGROW
- Airiel Solutions Pty Ltd
- Utags
Scaleups
- Agricultural Robotics
- AirAgri
- BeeSTAR
- BioScout
- Invertigro
- LYRO Robotics
- Zest Element
- Drone-Hand
- CropX
- APIS Solutions
- GXLab
- InformAg
- Provision.io
- ZoomAgri