17
November
2021
|
10:34
Australia/Melbourne

Aussie start up Airseed Technologies wins Bupa APAC’s eco-Disruptive competition

Summary

Australian start-up, Airseed Technologies, has been announced as Asia Pacific’s winner of Bupa’s inaugural international eco-Disruptive program. Airseed Technologies will now go in the running to win more than $350,000 in funding to further develop its drone tree planting technology at the Bupa eco-Disruptive Global Final next month.

Airseed Technologies was one of six Australian start-ups that received funding from Bupa to develop pilot solutions that positively impact the environment and support sustainable development. It was selected as the APAC regional winner after receiving the highest number of votes from Bupa Asia Pacific’s workforce.

As part of the competition, a dedicated team of Bupa’s people worked hand-in-hand with Airseed Technologies to continue the development a customer platform that could assist them in planting 100 million trees a year using drones and artificial intelligence.

Bupa Asia Pacific CEO Hisham El-Ansary congratulated Airseed Technologies on winning the regional final and said, “we are extremely excited to have Airseed Technologies representing Bupa Asia Pacific in the Global Final next month”.

“The innovative work they are doing in the agri-tech industry will potentially play an important role in restoring and protecting our environment. This is particularly important to us given the clear links between planet health and human health.”

“Throughout the competition, our people have been energised by the amazing solutions our teams and start-ups have developed during the past six months. It’s shown the value of large corporates working with start-ups to accelerate development of sustainable solutions to some of the big challenges our planet is facing – we both learn from each other,” Mr El-Ansary said.

“We are especially thrilled that our 42 people across the six teams had such a unique experience working with start-ups. We hope they learnt about the impact they can have as both individuals and collectively on solutions that can make a real difference to the health of our communities and planet.”

Airseed Technologies will be up against a range of other start-ups that have worked with teams across Bupa’s UK, European and Latin American network on December 1.

Andrew Walker, CEO and Co-Founder of Airseed Technologies said the companies’ participation in Bupa’s eco-Disruptive program and the learnings that followed have really accelerated its path to commercialisation. 

“For the past 3 years AirSeed Technologies has been developing drone and biotechnology to tackle the climate crisis and biodiversity loss head on. Now is the time for AirSeed to catapult our solution forward and realise our mission of tackling reforestation and biodiversity loss at scale,” Mr Walker said.

Following total initial funding of more than $200,000 to develop pilot solutions to present at the eco-Disruptive regional final, the 5 other APAC finalists will also receive an additional $10,000 in recognition of their efforts and to help further their future endeavours.

Bupa’s Australian finalists included:

  1. AirSeed: A startup that aims to plant 100 million trees a year using drones and artificial intelligence.
  2. Good Edi: An edible coffee cup that is fully compostable in two weeks and aims to solve the environmental issues stemming from the 2.7 million disposable coffee cups being sent to landfills in Australia every day.
  3. H2X: A hydrogen vehicle and generator maker, aiming to fast-track zero-emission transport and power supply.
  4. Australian Urban Growers: An online platform that enables people to upskill and grow their own fresh produce in a small space in a low maintenance way.
  5. PlaySport: An online marketplace across the sports, recreation and wellbeing industries, providing an engaging digital experience for the community to discover and participate in physical experiences.
  6. GetGreener: A marketplace app that guides people to greener options for everything they buy, then turns their purchase 'carbon neutral' to help end climate change.

Media reference number: 20/139