P.PSH.1006 - I+E Connect Ecosystem Map, Data Analytics & Portal

Summary

The new venture ecosystem map will provide MDC with global information on new venture and innovation investment activity from a wide range of sources including investors, entrepreneurs, corporates and universities and an early warning system on innovation trends globally. The online portal will connect MDC to disruptive and transformative innovation opportunities via a range of commercial models as part of the I+E Connect service offering. The data analytics capability will provide a sophisticated due-diligence platform to assess and validate new venture innovation opportunities.

Objectives

The overall objective is to develop and implement Artesian Agri food entrepreneurial growth strategies. The objective of the MDC I+E platform is to accelerate the delivery of future focused innovative and potentially disruptive solutions via engagement with the global new venture and entrepreneurial system. A key design principle for I+E connect is to develop strategic partnerships that will provide real-time access to data and information to identify trends and opportunities in the global Ag-tech, foodtech and the food innovation space.

Key findings

1. Many participants of the startup ecosystem reported that there is a lack of accurate and comprehensive data on startup activity and tools to draw insights, measure impact and create reports based on this data. Participants also had issues navigating the ecosystem.
2. Managers of accelerators observed that entrepreneurs sometimes create solutions that do not solve any industry problem, but instead push products into the market and then struggle to find first customers. This disconnect between entrepreneurial activity and industry problems results in failed technology pushes as there is not enough market pull innovation.
3. There is a strong demand for users to be able to follow companies on the MVP and sectors to be updated on activities happening in relevant sectors. The creation of a dashboard with a newsfeed is expected to drive platform engagement.
4. Industry challenges need to be part of the MVP, but the feature must be redesigned so that corporates can share problems with a selected audience. A three-level system should be considered to source solutions for industry challenges. The three levels are public, private and curated.

Benefits to industry

The minimum viable product (MVP) has several features that allow users to connect with companies relevant to their industry as well as associated individuals. Corporate members and industry bodies are able to post challenges faced by a particular company or the industry as a whole. Startups can then view challenges and register their existing or planned solution to these challenges, upon which, an introduction can be made if the person entering the challenge chose to be contactable.

The insights gained via dynamic mapping of the global AgriFood ecosystem will provide global competitor analysis, innovation investment activity analysis, an early warning system on innovation trends globally, make connections for disruptive and transformative innovation opportunities, and provide a sophisticated due diligence platform to assess and validate new venture innovation opportunities across MLA and MDC programs.

Future research

Suggested next steps include the acquisition of more data, which includes the scaling of the data pipeline, and a more rigorous approach to validating data input. Once a significant amount of high quality AgTech data has been imported, beta testers can be sourced to test the platform and provide feedback. Additional product opportunities are expected to surface after beta-testing and further user research.