The World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit welcomed over 2,500 agri-food businesses, technology giants, start-ups, and investors to exchange insights and identify future partners on March 14-15, 2023.

In our biggest event yet, the summit hosted main stage sessions, breakout discussions, an all-new start-up arena floor dedicated to start-up discovery and networking in San Francisco. Over 2,300 delegates joined us in person, extending to a global audience of over 2,500 via the interactive livestream.

From the exhibition and main stage, to the start-up arena and hotel lobby, spilling out to business HQs and evening dinners, San Francisco lived and breathed agri-food tech all week, with non-stop pitching and conversing in every corner of the city!

Enjoy our lightning summary of the summit action complete with video highlights, photo gallery, impactful takeaways and major announcements.

Video Highlights: Relive Two Packed Days

Session Highlights

Sustainable Innovation: Driving the Future of Agriculture

“It has never been a more complicated than today to be a farmer. With the rate of on-farm threats increasing, the role of agriculture really needs to change. Our purpose has evolved from food security to sustainably feeding and fuelling the world” Chuck Magro, CEO, CORTEVA AGRISCIENCE

Precision AI Wins the Cooperative Innovation Challenge

Precision AI has been selected as the winner of the Cooperative Ventures Innovation Challenge in San Francisco, in a close-run final against fellow finalists Autonomous Pivot and Ukko Agro, after being selected from over 100 entrants around the world. With its custom-built AI-powered drones, the Canada-based start-up offers plant-level herbicide applications at broadacre scale, ultimately taking crop production decisions from a whole field to an individual plant.

Microsoft Azure Data Manager For Agriculture

Ranveer Chandra (MICROSOFT) & Bob Reiter (BAYER CROP SCIENCE) announced their new cloud-based enterprise solutions, advancing innovation and transparency in the agri-food industry on stage!

“We are proud to announce a digital agricultural platform which brings together data from across the farm, brings it together and stores it securely to share in a privacy protecting way, helping transform the future of digital agriculture.” said Ranveer

Breakfast Networking: Women Leaders in Ag

Created exclusively for women in ag, the gathering hosted with S2G VENTURES recognized and celebrated the success of women leaders in agriculture and seek to nurture and inspire the next generation of talent.

Operationalizing Next Generation Practices for Mainstream Farming

Danny Royer (US MERCED), Jorge Heraud (JOHN DEERE), Dr. Hari (SIME DARBY PLANTATION), Dirk Vandenhirtz (CROP.ZONE), Ryan Risdal (PROAGRICA) and Kevin Krieg (INTELINAIR) around the demands coming from farmers to drive productivity and reduce fertilizer input. The session was brought to life with a live illustration.

More with Less: Can We Protect Crops Sustainably?

When sharing their previsions for the next 10 years of biologicals, Darren Anderson of VIVE CROP PROTECTION said he hopes that in the next ten years he sees ‘the [panelists] replace one of the big 6 ag chem companies”.

The Outlook for AgTech Investing

“The broader macro environment is not going to get any better anytime soon, but I do think it’s a big opportunity as well. […] For the companies that have strong fundamentals, it’s a real opportunity for them to make acquisitions. For investors, it’s a real opportunity to actually appropriately price the best [startups] in the network.” Katrin Burt, Managing Partner, GROSVENOR FOOD & AGTECH

What Delegates Said

Industry leaders share their observations on the exciting areas of agtech right now and why it’s important for the industry to regroup at conferences like World Agri-Tech in these short video interviews.

“It’s important for us to be at World Agri-Tech because of the networking! You get to see the best and the brightest of the industry all in one place, all the thought leadership, and all the great ideas that are out there that can help to solve all these industry challenges we have.”
Chief Sustainability Officer, CHS

“Got more accomplished in 2 days than in 2 weeks of online meetings.”

Global Head Digital Sustainability, SYNGENTA

“It was a great opportunity to see the newest technologies and trade notes with industry leaders. I had multiple meaningful, enlightening conversations with other attendees that gave me inspiration for our company’s technology and digital transformation roadmap.”

VP, Strategy & Innovation, SUNKIST GROWERS

“World-Agri-Tech was an incredible opportunity for Switch Bioworks. Over 100 leaders stop by our booth in the Start-up Arena and we made many more serendipitous connections in the hallways and after our pitch on the main stage. Anyone who has anything to say in ag innovation is there – it’s an event that cannot be missed. We left inspired and excited about our mission at Switch and how it fits into the bigger movement.”

Founder & CEO, SWITCH BIOWORKS

“A world-class, pivotal event for innovators in agriculture. It is the one event each year where you can be guaranteed to meet all the players in a single location.”

Venture Associate, FULCRUM GLOBAL CAPITAL

Who Joined Us?

Here are just some of the global players and industry leaders who joined us at the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco this year:

See You Next Time!

 

 

Get the dates in your schedules now!

  • The World Agri-Tech South America Summit returns to São Paulo, to host the vibrant agtech community on June 20-21! Contact Tom Bennett to help shape the content and be involved as a speaker, partner or exhibitor.
  • We’re heading back to London to facilitate idea-sharing and business opportunities on September 26-27.
  • Join us in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit on Oct. 31 – Nov. 2, part of Singapore International Agri-Food Week (SIAW).
  • And of course, we’ll see you back in San Francisco next year on March 12-13, 2024 with more exciting partnerships. If you have a great story to tell, an innovative solution to showcase, contact Marion Grimes.