University of Melbourne backs The Leaf Protein Co; Airtree puts $1.5m behind new AI platform TrueState

A Melbourne start-up that can extract protein from Saltbush and a Sydney platform that can use AI to turn a company’s data into products have nabbed over $2.35m.

The Leaf Protein co-founder Fern Ho.

A Melbourne-based start-up that has found a way to extract protein from leaves has picked up $850,000 from the University of Melbourne and Breakthrough Victoria.

The Leaf Protein Co has discovered how to extract protein from several kinds of plant, including Saltbush. The start-up, founded by Fern Ho and Connor Balfany, hopes to become an additional revenue stream for farmers. “As our weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable, this creates valuable alternative crops for farmers in the future,” Mr Balfany said.

Co-founder Connor Balfany.

Ms Ho said the method of extraction allowed for the used plants to be made into other products and animal feed.

“Our unique extraction process retains and preserves the functional nutrition held within plants to create sustainable protein sources,” she said.

LaunchVic’s Hugh Victor Mckay Fund also participated in the investment round, with chief executive Kate Cornick adding that she believed The Leaf Protein Co had great potential to scale.

“Fern and Connor’s team have developed proprietary technology that could unlock one of the planet’s most abundant and sustainable protein sources, and it’s been a pleasure to follow their journey since graduating from the SproutX program in 2021,” Dr Cornick said.

Airtree backs TrueState

Meanwhile, a Sydney start-up that can develop AI-powered applications for companies using their data has picked up $1.5m from Airtree and other investors.

TrueState was founded by Will Ashford, a former McKinsey QuantumBlack consultant who happened upon the idea after advising AI strategies for the likes of major Australian ­supermarkets.

Mr Ashford said while most companies had an AI strategy and were investing in the technology, most were being slowed down as they built their own products.

TrueState founder Will Ashford

“Right now, we’re seeing most businesses in one of two scenarios; they are either investing in a huge tangle of third-party AI toys that are more hype than impact, or they are taking months or even years to build their own AI tools, often relying on costly external consultancy firms,” he said.

“The reason for these delays is because companies get caught up building the necessary supporting software to support their dream use cases. It’s like they wanted to conduct some financial analysis but were forced to build their own Microsoft Excel along the way.”

TrueState’s edge was pre-built templates that could be customised by a company’s data, providing recommendations for the “next-best action” or how to improve customer retention, Mr Ashford said.

Its product can also be used to build pricing recommendations, inventory management, staff retention and customer support.

Airtree partner James Cameron, who led the round, said the start-up arrived when many companies were “crying out for help” with their AI strategies.

“The excitement from the AI hype train is quickly being replaced by frustration as corporations struggle to deploy new AI technologies safely and reliably without an army of consultants. But AI can also help solve this problem, as it will increasingly be used to automate the role of expensive consultants,” he said.

“This is where TrueState comes in with its first product: an integrated library of AI components that can automate the work of building AI solutions that would take consultants six to 12 months to do.”

Ben Grabiner, general partner at Side Stage Ventures, which also participated in the round, said “despite the hype, there is still a significant gap between the potential productivity gains for enterprises from AI and the actual gains that have been realised”.