Venture capital fund · 2 deals
Narrabri, NSW
Every published round Cotton Research and Development Corporation took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FluroSat | Seed | Dec 2017 | $1m | Participant | AgFunderNews, SmartCompany, Cotton Research and Development Corporation, Tenacious Ventures | |
| FluroSat | Accelerator | 2017 | - | Lead | Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Fri 7 Jan 2022), Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Thu 21 Feb 2019) |
Companies Cotton Research and Development Corporation has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FluroSat | 2017, Accelerator | 2 | 1 |
Fund closes reported for Cotton Research and Development Corporation, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Cotton Research and Development Corporation has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Cotton Research and Development Corporation did.
| Name | Role | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Ian Taylor | Executive Director | Cotton Research and Development Corporation |
| Allan Williams | Executive Director (former) | Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Fri 21 Aug 2026), Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Mon 22 Jun 2026) |
| Bruce Finney | Executive Director (former) | Cotton Research and Development Corporation |
| Susan Maas | Senior Innovation Broker | Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Thu 19 Jun 2025), Cotton Research and Development Corporation (Tue 8 Aug 2023) |
Stories naming Cotton Research and Development Corporation. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
CRDC marks Allan Williams' 2026 industry service award with a career retrospective, covering his decades across cotton research bodies and his recent departure as the corporation's executive director.
Australia's cotton research body CRDC has appointed Dr Georgina Pengilley as Managing Director from late July 2026, with Allan Williams stepping aside after 14 years.
Ag Econ leads a research effort testing floating solar on farm water storages, backed by a $6 million federal grant, with CRDC and two universities as research partners.
CRDC announces the launch of Agricultural Innovation Australia's Environmental Accounting Platform, giving farm sectors a standardised way to measure carbon; nine rural research and development corporations invested in building it.
CRDC profiles NanoSoils Bio founder Dr Cong Vu, whose nanoparticle crop technology earned a 2023 ABARES award and a CRDC grant, ahead of the startup's Startup Alley appearance at evokeAG in Perth.
CRDC announces that an irrigation algorithm developed by University of Southern Queensland and CSIRO researchers has gone to Goanna Ag, which will fold it into its GoField service to guide cotton growers' first irrigation.
SparkLabs Cultiv8 has picked ten cleantech startups for the first intake of its new accelerator, run from Orange with backing from Cultiv8 Funds Management and several agricultural research bodies.
Grains and cotton research bodies GRDC and CRDC announce a $5.5m, five-year partnership with agtech firm Goanna Ag to build a network of weather stations warning growers about hazardous spray conditions.
CRDC profile celebrates FluroSat founder Anastasia Volkova topping The Australian's 100 Innovators list, recalling its startup workshop support since 2017 and FluroSat's acquisition of Dagan's soil modelling capability to form Regrow Ag.
Also AgFunderNews
Six small and medium businesses will share federal BRII grant funding to develop and test ways of tackling spray drift in cotton, in a challenge the publisher is helping solve.
Nineteen listed companies received federal BRII feasibility-study grants totalling $2.27 million across five government agency challenge themes, including turning farm crops into renewable hydrogen.
A CRDC-funded canopy sensor built by CSIRO researchers at Narrabri will reach the market via Goanna Ag, helping growers fine-tune irrigation without losing yield; FarmOnline ran the coverage.
A University of New England-led project with UK firm BioCarbon Engineering will test drone and tractor seeding for cheaper revegetation of cotton farmland, backed by a $1.3 million government grant won by CRDC.
A year-end reflection on Australian agtech's 2017 rise, covering FluroSat's investment round, several startups' funding totals, SproutX's first accelerator cohort, Observant's acquisition, and the author's hopes for 2018.
Also Tenacious Ventures portfolio·Cotton Research and Development Corporation·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews
A review of global agtech investment trends and Australia's growing ecosystem, recalling 2016 sector figures plus recent local milestones: an accelerator and venture fund launch, an acquisition, and a large raise.
Also Virescent Ventures·AgFunderNews·SmartCompany·AgFunderNews·evokeag.com·AgFunderNews