The Seven Year Itch: What We Got Wrong (and Right) in Australian Agtech, with Sam Duncan and Natalie Engel

Seven years ago, agtech in Australia was still in its infancy. There were bold predictions, a flurry of startups, and an emerging ecosystem of programs and investors to back them. So how have things panned out?

In this live stage recording at the 2026 AgriFutures evokeAG event in Melbourne, Sarah Nolet is joined by Sam Duncan, founder of GXLab (formerly FarmLab and Ziltek) and Natalie Engel, a QLD-based cattle producer. Together, they reflect on the last seven years of the Aussie agtech ecosystem: the hype cycles, the pivots, and the very human realities behind building technology in agriculture.

Back in 2019 at the first evokeAG event, both Sam and Natalie pitched two very different ideas. Sam was an outsider to agriculture with a vision to use soil data and soil carbon to tackle climate change. While as a farmer, Natalie was reverse-pitching a problem: the frustrating reality of livestock traceability paperwork and the need for better digital tools.

Seven years later, neither could have predicted where their agtech journeys would end up.

Sarah, Sam, and Natalie discuss:

• What the agtech ecosystem looked like in 2019 and how expectations around soil carbon, digitization, and traceability have evolved.
• Why building agtech startups often requires navigating both the realities of farming and the pressures of venture-backed growth.
• The emotional toll of entrepreneurship in agriculture.
• Why the next decade of agtech may be driven less by hype and more by resilience, cost pressures, and geopolitical shifts affecting agriculture.

Useful Links:

• Agriculture’s technology future: How connectivity can yield new growth | McKinsey
• FarmLab’s journey to GXLab: From Startup Alley to global soil solutions - evokeAG.
• Seven Years On, evokeAG. Returns to Melbourne to Chart Agtech’s Next Frontier
• Beyond the funding winter: Australia's agtech opportunity - evokeAG.
• Meet Natalie Engel - Cattle farmer and agtech enthusiast | Mobble
• Companies mentioned: Ceres Tag, Halter, Agovor, AgriProve, Mobble, OptiWeigh, AgFrontier

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