farmdrive has closed a £1 million pre seed investment round to accelerate the global scale up of its livestock data and supply chain platform.
The investment, led by TechStart Ventures and Ascension Ventures, with participation from Angel Invest, will fund product development, new hires, and expansion across the UK and Europe. Founded in 2023 by two NI entrepreneurs, Gareth McDonald (CEO) and Gareth Gordon (CTO), farmdrive was built based on their own family farm experience to replace the heavy burden of compliance paperwork with simple but powerful software.
Today, the platform is used by over 1,000 beef and dairy farms across the UK and Ireland, tracking over 150,000 cattle, with farmers reporting they are saving at least 6 hours per week on compliance and record keeping.
Alongside its app for farmers, farmdrive enterprise connects meat processors and retailers to real time supply chain data, enabling full traceability, 12 month supply forecasting, medication monitoring, and emerging sustainability reporting.
Trusted by supply chain leaders including ABP Linden and Foyle Meats, farmdrive enterprise customers report saving at least 20 hours per week on supply chain paperwork and movement recording.
The co founders have benefitted from local business support programmes including the NatWest Ulster Bank Accelerator and Ormeau Labs’ programme, Founder Labs. They credit these programmes with kick starting their entrepreneurial journey.
The company plans to expand their team over the next 12 months, hiring across software engineering, data analysis, marketing, customer success, and enterprise account management.
