farmdrive secures £1m pre-seed to scale livestock-data platform across UK, Europe
This article covers farmdrive, a Northern Ireland agritech startup, which has closed a £1m pre-seed round to accelerate product development, hire staff and expand into UK and European markets. The funding will support its livestock data and supply-chain platform, which serves more than 1,000 beef and dairy farms and links farmers to processors and retailers to improve record-keeping and traceability.
farmdrive, a Northern Ireland agritech startup, has closed a £1 million pre-seed round to speed up product development, hire staff and push into new UK and European markets. The company makes a livestock data and supply chain platform that already serves more than 1,000 beef and dairy farms and connects farmers to processors and retailers — an area of growing interest as food traceability and supply-chain transparency rise up industry and regulatory agendas.
Why it matters
farmdrive addresses a persistent pain point on livestock farms: paperwork and fragmented record-keeping that complicate compliance, animal health tracking and supply-chain visibility. The company says its farmer-facing app is used on over 1,000 beef and dairy farms across the UK and Ireland and tracks more than 150,000 cattle. Farmers using the app report saving at least six hours a week on compliance and records.
On the other end of the supply chain, farmdrive enterprise links meat processors and retailers to live farm data for traceability, 12-month supply forecasting, medication monitoring and nascent sustainability reporting. Customers cited in the announcement include ABP Linden and Foyle Meats, both meat processors that rely on accurate movement and medication records to meet regulatory and commercial traceability requirements.
Inside the product
farmdrive offers a two-part product: a mobile app aimed at farmers for on-farm record-keeping, and farmdrive enterprise, which aggregates that data for downstream partners. Key capabilities highlighted by the company include real-time movement recording, medication logs and simple forecasting tools to predict supply over 12 months.
The company reports that enterprise customers save about 20 hours a week on paperwork and movement recording, suggesting the platform is being used to streamline compliance-heavy processes and reduce manual handoffs between farms and processors.
Founder perspective
Gareth McDonald, CEO and a fourth-generation farmer who co-founded farmdrive in 2023, describes the product as born from practical farm experience.
Gareth McDonald, 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.
The co-founders credit local business support programmes such as the NatWest Ulster Bank Accelerator and Ormeau Labs’ Founder Labs with kick-starting their entrepreneurial journey.
Who’s backing the round
The £1 million pre-seed round was led by TechStart Ventures and Ascension Ventures, with participation from Angel Invest.
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.
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.
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 investors point to farmdrive’s market traction, domain expertise and the wider need for digital infrastructure in food supply chains as reasons for their support.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of agtech venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of agtech angel investors in the UK
The bigger picture
farmdrive’s raise and reported traction sit within a broader UK and European push to digitise agriculture and improve food-chain traceability. Increasing regulatory attention on provenance, medication records and sustainability reporting is creating opportunities for data-first solutions that can provide consistent, auditable records from farm to processor.
The company celebrated a successful 2025, winning the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society Innovation Award, being named Tech Start-Up of the Year at the NI Tech Awards, and taking the Innovation in Agriculture Award at the NI Farming Awards. farmdrive says it will hire across software engineering, data analysis, marketing, customer success and enterprise account management over the next 12 months as it expands its presence in the UK and Europe.
As policymakers and buyers push for greater transparency in food supply chains, startups that can combine on-farm usability with enterprise-grade reporting are likely to draw continued interest from both customers and investors across the region.
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