Northern Ireland agri-tech company, farmdrive, has closed a £1million pre-seed 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.
Speaking about the investment, Audrey Osbourne from TechStart, said:
“Techstart is delighted to support the farmdrive team on their mission to become the global single source of truth for farm data. Their vision aligns strongly with our focus on backing ambitious founders at the earliest stage, who are pursuing uncapped global opportunities in industries they understand deeply.”
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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.
During their startup journey, the co-founders 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.
Gareth McDonald, a fourth-generation farmer and CEO of farmdrive, said:
“The support we have received through local programmes has been fundamental in our success; from being able to tap into expertise to first-class networking opportunities.
farmdrive was started on my own family farm to make everyday life easier for cattle farmers. We’re incredibly proud to see it being loved and trusted by thousands of farmers across the UK and Ireland. This £1m investment lets us take our practical vision worldwide - giving farmers better data in their pocket and giving meat processors and retailers the transparency they need - from farm to shelf.”
Gareth Gordon, farmdrive CTO, added:
“As software engineers who grew up on farms, we’ve always had a very practical approach, and believe technology only matters if it truly helps farmers. This investment means we can keep improving farmdrive – making it faster, smarter, and more useful - simplifying compliance for farmers and giving supply chains a live view right back to the farm gate.”
Commenting on the investment, Toyosi Ogebengbe, Principal at Ascension, said:
“Supply chain visibility is vital to informing production, establishing an audit trail, and building resilient food systems. farmdrive is at the forefront of this transformation providing critical infrastructure to make this possible. We’re pumped to back Gareth and Gareth - two farmers turned software engineers - who are bringing farming into the 21st century.”
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Connor Murphy, Partner at Angel Invest, added:
“farmdrive’s early growth is striking. Farmers are discovering the app, adopting it, and spreading it organically from farm to farm. You almost never see this kind of viral growth in agriculture. The team’s credibility and understanding of this multi-billion-pound market points to a category-defining company in the making. That’s why we’re so excited to back Gareth and the team.”
The investment follows a successful 2025 for farmdrive having won the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society Innovation Award, being named Tech Start-Up of the Year at the NI Tech Awards, and winning the Innovation in Agriculture Award at the NI Farming Awards.
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.
For a 30-day free trial of farmdrive, go to www.farmdrive.io.
For a demo of farmdrive enterprise, email info@farmdrive.io.
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