In part we do. We've established our own internal fund to do the job called the Pre-seed Fund. The Business Group manages it.

Since the Fund was started, in late 2003, over $13 million has been invested by AgResearch and a further $4 million has been obtained for Pre-seed projects via government grants and partner co-funding.

67 projects have been funded, with 34 currently receiving funding. Projects come from across our science groups. To date, approximately a quarter of projects have agreements in place to commercialise or further develop project intellectual property.

A critical part of Pre-seed projects is identifying and engaging with potential commercial partners. This creates opportunities to secure external investment alongside the Pre-seed funding - giving the investor the option of taking up the technology commercially later on. We also expose venture capital companies to all Pre-seed concept sketches.

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