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Agricultural equipment giant John Deere launches innovation hub in Brazil

The new hub is part of the company's digital integration plans

Laboratório de inovação da John Deere em Piracicaba, AgTech Garage - Startups

* by Renato Pezzotti

Esta história está disponível em português

Agricultural and construction machinery giant John Deere has partnered with AgTech Garage to launch a venue dedicated to technological innovation. The new lab expands the company’s partnership with AgTech Garage, which started in January this year, when John Deere became an “innovation partner” of the innovation hub located in Piracicaba (137 miles from São Paulo).

The new space has three cameras that can be connected to other offices, as well as large screens for presentations, in addition to virtual reality resources and real-time interaction. The lab can be used by the company’s dealer network, customers, partners and even startups working within AgTech Garage.

“This space is a materialization of all our innovation initiatives. It’s another step in our digital integration journey. It has a lot to do with the learning curve and the maturity we’ve gained in the last 5 years”, says Rodrigo Bonato, the company’s marketing director for Latin America.

According to the executive, the space has to go beyond its function as a meeting and video conferencing room. “Our lab needs to be immersive. It is all about ‘phigital’, the union of physical and digital presence. We’ve matured as a multinational, and we also learned to adopt the dynamism of startups in our ways of working and we intend to maximize the use of a space like this”, Bonato says.

Talent creation

John Deere is poised to make new investments in the agritech segment, mainly in the São Paulo countryside. The multinational is set to announce new partnerships before Agrishow, one of Brazil’s main agribusiness fairs which will take place between April 25-29, in Ribeirão Preto (232 miles from São Paulo).

“This laboratory inside the [Agtech Garage] hub is just the first step of what we are going to create within the agro innovation zone, between Piracicaba, Campinas and Indaiatuba, where our headquarters are located”, Bonato says.

“By the time Agrishow comes around, we will announce more investments that unite startups, the public and private sectors as well as academia, mainly to stimulate and provoke the agribusiness sector. We want to transform this region into an area that generates talents for this industry”, the executive concludes.