In collaboration with industry leaders including Nestlé, Dale Farm, Hartpury Digital Innovation Farm, and Peacock Technology, who defined the challenges that the participants will solve, this programme is delivered by Digital Catapult as part of the Innovate UK BridgeAI Programme and builds on its success applying AI-driven solutions to support the country’s high-growth sectors.

The High Growth AI Accelerator, part of the BridgeAI programme, has facilitated £2.4 million in private and public funding within one year of participation, demonstrating the programme’s convening power and impact on scaling deep tech startups. The UK’s agrifood supply chain is highly complex and this new intervention will support the drive for greater digital supply chain resilience and adoption of deep tech applications including biomass condition management, dairy forecasting, and plant disease detection. 

With ongoing support from the industry leaders, participants will consider how to solve specific challenges in the agrifood sector including ways to forecast milk volumes from cattle and optimise feed as Rubik trials its Data Mule platform during the 14-week programme. Barefoot Lightning will connect data from farmers with its feed platform to boost production quality and cut carbon emissions, FISCROP will develop a modelling tool to improve disease management and feed efficiency, while Crop Intellect is advancing a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system for scaling its solution that can scale N₂O removal projects.  

Further applications that will be trialled to help ensure the sector is future ready include Carbon Rewild testing an AI bird classifier to provide deeper insights into species’ behaviour and Wilder Sensing will enhance its solution to validate habitat classifications and improve environmental impact assessments. Data Dynamics will refine its geospatial monitoring platform to test and validate capabilities on cocoa farming data in West Africa. Mozaic Earth will look to scale its smartphone-enabled biodiversity and biomass monitoring solution for Scope 3 emissions reporting and FarmSmarter is building a tool to detect Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus in West Africa early, empowering farmers with information about crop disease diagnoses in low-connectivity regions.  

By convening capabilities with the industry leaders, offering innovation and technological consultancy, and investment readiness support to participants, Digital Catapult continues to enable deep tech startups to scale successfully and ensure that the UK’s agrifood sector can build greater resilience to future challenges. With the sector contributing £14.5 billion to the economy, AI-driven solutions offer a clear pathway for sustained growth, enabling UK agrifood to modernise practices, optimise resource use and strengthen resilience while also improving productivity.  

Jessica Rushworth, Chief Partnerships Officer, at Digital Catapult, said: “What underpins the importance of this intervention is the need to ensure that agrifood businesses will be future-ready and as adaptable as possible to fluctuating yields and unprecedented environmental challenges like we’ve seen this year. Critical to the continued success of this programme is effective collaboration and partnership, and we’re excited to partner with industry leaders like Nestle and Dale Farm to jointly demonstrate how AI can help to solve some of the sector’s most significant challenges and ensure continued growth in the years to come.”  

Sara El-Hanfy, Director of AI & Digital at Innovate UK, said: “The agrifood sector faces some of the most significant challenges of our time; from supply chain resilience to climate pressures. By supporting AI-first startups through the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme and specialist accelerators, we are giving them the tools, partnerships, and confidence to transform bold ideas into scalable solutions. This programme demonstrates how innovation, when coupled with industry expertise, can unlock new growth, sustainability, and global leadership for the UK’s agrifood industry.”

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