Gold Farm, an aggregation startup in the agriculture sector has received its seed fund of $2 million from Mahindra and Infuse Ventures. The amount will be utilized by the company to expand its current operations, both geographically as well as in terms of the scope of services being offered to its customers.
This startup, based in Karnataka works with around 25,000 farmers at the district and village levels in the field of mechanization of their cultivation and harvesting operations. One of the major services Gold Farm provides is to rennet out tractors for farming on an hourly basis. This saves the farmers from making investments or borrowing to own a tractor. The startup gets to pocket around 10-15% of the transaction costs as its management fee. Throwing some numbers, the startup claims it is able to manage an overall 250 hours of ploughing everyday through the tractors being rented out by them.
The association with Mahindra & Mahindra goes beyond just funding of the project. The tractor major also makes many other accessories and farm equipment, which Farm Gold depends on, to introduce to the farmers who have signed on for their services or new customers as well. This will ultimately go towards creating a loyal customer base for them and will end in a win-win situation all round. The farmers will be happy that they are getting access to newer technologies and their dependency on scarce agricultural labor will be reduced and for Mahindra & Mahindra and Gold Farms more business going ahead.
Besides these, Mahindra is also working with an Israeli company for deploying drones in the field of agriculture, where they can be first used to check if the crops have been affected by pests or diseases before using them to spray the appropriate cure.
Gold Farm is currently catering to farmers in the districts of Gadag and Kolar. With the funds coming in, it can work on expanding this footprint further.