Seven Innovative Wine Start-ups announced for Foment

Seven highly innovative wine and tourism tech start-ups have been announced as part of the Marshall Liberal Government funded FOMENT program.

At the Wine Industry IMPACT Awards in front of 400 attendees at the Adelaide Town Hall last night, Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Tim Whetstone announced businesses from across Australia - ZionTech, ROVER Journey, Twenty Five Doors, Dionysus, Taglog, GAIA and Cellr – were part of the first FOMENT intake.

The seven successful businesses will launch into six intensive bootcamp sessions over three weeks at the Tonsley Innovation Hub next month with mentoring support, culminating in a project pitch to the Foment Advisory Board.

Minister Whetstone said the State Government contributed $80,000 in grant funding to the program aimed at accelerating innovation and encourage new ideas within the wine sector.

"The Marshall Liberal Government is proud to support FOMENT through the South Australian Wine Industry Development Scheme and it is pleasing to see highly innovative and creative wine and tourism start-ups accepted into the program," said Minister Whetstone.

"This is about giving wine businesses an opportunity to think outside the square and test ideas in a fast-paced intensive environment, with expert support and mentoring.

"This program will also help lead to more investment in South Australia by increasing the number of start-ups in our state.

"South Australia is globally recognised as a leader in the wine industry producing 80 per cent of Australia's premium wine and this program works in well with the State Government's AgTech growth agenda."

FOMENT is delivered through a collaboration between the Flinders New Venture Institute, Wine Industry Suppliers Australia Inc and Hydra Consulting.

Aron Hausler, Director of Flinders New Venture Institute, was excited at the potential of the ideas presented.

"Innovation and enterprise is embedded in Flinders University across all of our programs and is epitomised in our award-winning New Venture Institute," said Mr Hausler.

"FOMENT fuses innovation and digital technologies to build South Australia's prominent wine and tourism industries. This will open new opportunities, help companies to scale up and expand the sector's valuable contributions to our state.

"The current value of South Australia's wine exports is on a par with higher education at $1.8 billion, while tourism is worth $7.6 billion – record performance, but sustained growth cannot be left to chance. We need to pay constant attention to creating capacity to ensure these vital industry sectors continue to thrive.

"That's why we're partnering with industry to ensure FOMENT is tailored to develop the specific entrepreneurial skills to deliver new products in new ways, and ensure wine and tourism remain iconic sectors."

The successful businesses are:

ZionTech: This ‘Grape to Glass' platform uses blockchain to track the history of the grape through to its transformation into a bottle of wine.

ROVER Journey: A Chinese micro-influencer marketplace, helping Australian businesses reach Chinese consumers by engaging local brand advocates.

Twenty Five Doors: This team partners with cellar doors for better wine tourism experiences using a digital map and marketplace to help them connect with qualified consumers.

Dionysus: A journaling app that helps wine festival goers purchase the bottles they tried, and loved, once they're home.

Taglog: An integrated platform with field devices for data logging, capturing the work process as it occurs, including a time and GPS stamp.

Consilium/GAIA: A cloud-based, automated solution for vineyard identification and mapping at any scale.

Cellr: Cellr is a connected packaging solution for anti-counterfeit and direct-to-consumer marketing in the wine, spirits and beverage industries.