Mahindra, Infuse Ventures sow $2 million Seed Fund in Gold Farm

BENGALURU: Gold Farm, a supply chain-focussed aggregation platform for farm equipment, has raised a seed fund of $2 million from Mahindra and venture capital fund Infuse Ventures.

“The funds raised are being used for expanding the service across village districts in Karnataka, besides building infrastructure, as well as farmer outreach programmes to expand the availability of farm mechanisation equipment without owning them," Abhilash Thirupathy, cofounder of Gold Farm told ET.

Through its app, the startup currently caters to around 25,000 farmers residing in village districts in Karnataka, such as Kolar and Gadag. According to Thirupathy, the company connects farmers with other farmers or individuals who lease out farm equipment such as tractors on an hourly basis. The startup takes a 10-15% cut from the transaction. The company claims to have seen a 75% repeat rate from the existing customer base. Through the tractor provision, approximately 250 hours of ploughing gets completed on a daily basis.

“The primary help we have taken from Mahindra is to increase the offering of special implements to farmers which would not otherwise be available locally, we are also trying to tap into their catalogue because we want to access new farming products and make that available to our existing base of customers," said Thirupathy.

“As market leader in farm mechanisation Mahindra & Mahindra has always pioneered new technologies to benefit farmers around the world... We confirm that we have invested $2 million in agtech startup Gold Farm along with Infuse ventures," a Mahindra spokesperson told ET. Gold Farm is presently collaborating with an Israeli drone startup to carry out a pilot programme during November in a district in Karnataka and West Bengal. The duo will determine whether drones can be used as a tool to detect if it can identify diseases among crops before it spreads.