NZ attendees would look to make contacts, gain ideas and raise venture capital, according to one of the event organisers, Peter Wren-Hilton, of Wharf 42 in Tauranga.
Part of the first prize for AgriSmart time sheet solution, entered by Morrinsville chartered accountant Imran Raza in the Activate 2.0 process in early March, was an expenses-paid inclusion in the Silicon Valley conference.
AgriSmart would also be loaded on to the Agrigate platform launched by Fonterra and LIC in February.
Raza and his sales manager Mark Crarer would travel to California with a confirmed 20 other New Zealanders and probably more.
With at least 60% of his accountancy practice clients being dairy farmers, Raza conceived the AgriSmart farm hours, tasks and compliance application in mid-2015 and began selling it last year.
It ensured employees didn’t breach the minimum hourly rate legislation and tracked annual leave entitlement and rostered days off.
A recent inspection by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment could find no fault with the system, Raza said.
Wren-Hilton said following the first Silicon Valley event last year three NZ agtech companies including TracMap had moved to establish a presence in the US market and Yamaha Ventures had come to NZ to look at agtech products.
Driscoll, the world’s largest berry producer, had visited NZ twice to form a closer relationship with our emerging berry industry.
NZ speakers at the conference this year would include Agrigate chief executive Tim Cutfield, LIC Automation chief executive Paul Whiston and chemistry and physics Professor Cather Simpson of Auckland University.
The joint organiser was Silicon Valley Forum, the oldest investor network in the region, and the event was supported by NZ Trade and Enterprise.
