When DArT P/L was formed in 2001, it received its initial assistance from CAMBIA, the Biotechnology Innovation Fund of the Australian Federal Government, and the ACT Government. The assistance provided by the Rockefeller Foundation to CAMBIA was also instrumental in getting the technology off the ground.
Triticarte PL was DArT PL’s first Joint Venture. DArT PL partnered with the CRC for Value Added Wheat to establish a genotyping service organisation for wheat and barley. In line with the initial GRDC (request permission), funding, the initial focus of Triticarte was the Australian grains industry, but the company soon developed into an international leader in wheat genome profiling with hundreds of users from all continents.
Triticarte operated from 2003 to 2008, until the end of the CRC’s term and in 2009 it was closed after DArT PL acquired the other 50% of Triticarte’s shares from GRDC. After consolidation of Triticarte with DArT PL Triticarte was closed as a business in 2011. A number of significant contributions to DArT technology commercialisation were made by a number of CRC staff through the life of Triticarte: Dr Bill Rathmell (a co-Director of Triticarte with Andrzej Kilian), Peter Vaughn (Managing Director of the CRC) as well as Dr. Neil Howes, Dr Claire Johnson and Prof Peter Sharp, Director of PBI in Sydney. Eric Huttner, a co-founder of DArT PL, was the manager of Triticarte and contributed greatly to its success.
Other investors in the company and technology development included: Australian Wool Innovation, the Gardiner Foundation the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) BSES Limited, the Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology, International Consortium for Sugarcane Biotechnology (ICSB), The Generation Challenge Program of the CGIAR, CIRAD(Montpellier, France) and ICRISAT (Hyderabad, India) Multinational consortia of scientists supported the development of DArT for Oats, Hops, Brassica, Triticale, Eucalyptus and many other species.
