Deep Planet has set up its Australian headquarters in Adelaide, South Australia. The UK agtech firm will have access to the state’s renowned wineries, skilled workforce and research institutions that specialise in its key technologies.
A home in Australia’s wine capital
Deep Planet’s VineSignal platform monitors vineyards at scale. The platform helps growers and viticulturists to manage vine health, predict grape maturity and forecast yield. It can also be used to optimise irrigation scheduling and identify problem areas.
As the historic heart of Australian wine, South Australia is the ideal home for Deep Planet. The state is home to renowned regions and wineries and some of the country’s oldest vines.
‘We commercially launched our VineSignal platform in Australia last season,’ says Sushma Shankar, Deep Planet’s CEO. ‘We saw an exceptional level of uptake of our technology. This has given us the confidence to make this investment into South Australia.’
Leveraging Australia’s space and machine learning expertise
Deep Planet’s platform is built on satellite imagery, computer vision and machine learning. South Australia has a thriving technology sector with research institutions and experts in these areas.
The state is home to the and the . There is also a skilled workforce from which Deep Planet can find local staff.
‘The South Australian Government clearly demonstrated the skills and knowledge across the space, machine learning and wine sectors that we can leverage, making it a natural fit for us,’ says Shankar.
Government support
Deep Planet received support from the to set up its HQ. This program support companies making their first investment in Australia or South Australia. The company’s investment must help stimulate the local economy, create jobs and grow new industries.
Deep Planet also received help from Austrade. The agency worked with Innovate UK on its Global Business Innovation Program to Australia. Austrade organised for Deep Planet to attend the evokeAG2020 conference in Australia as part of a UK delegation. evokeAG2020 is the premier agrifood event in the Asia Pacific region.
Austrade also connected Deep Planet with a variety of Australian organisations, delivered a pre-departure briefing and facilitated introductions to state governments. These activities accelerated Deep Planet’s investment journey into Australia.
Potential benefits of a new Australia-UK FTA
Deep Planet sees the Australia-UK Free Trade Agreement as a key opportunity. The company believes the FTA will ease staff mobility and increase collaboration on R&D. This will help grow its business in Australia.
‘An example is the opportunity in environmental conservation,’ says Shankar. ‘For instance, in global cross-border collaboration of soil carbon baselining for the wine industry.’
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