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Tractor Junction, the rural vehicle marketplace has raised $5.7 million in seed round funding co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Omnivore.
Existing investors AgFunder GROW Impact Fund and Rockstart AgriFood Fund also participated in the round, alongside angels, including Vikram Chopra & Mehul Agrawal, the co-founders of Cars24, Vellayan Subbiah & Arun Venkatachalam from the Murugappa Group, and Sanjiv Rangrass, the company said in a statement.
Set up in 2019, Tractor Junction is a digital marketplace to buy, sell, finance, and insure new and used tractors, farm equipment, and rural commercial vehicles.
Despite the steady pace of agricultural mechanization, Indian farmers who want to buy rural vehicles have to navigate information opacity, unfair pricing, and a lack of trusted sources for smooth transactions. Dealers also struggle to reach their target customers, appropriately price used vehicles, and liquidate exchange inventory.
Tractor Junction claimed it is revolutionizing the rural vehicle space by providing necessary information and vetted reviews on farm machinery, enabling users to compare shortlisted options, and bringing transparency in pricing.
Over the last two years, Tractor Junction had registered seven-fold growth in annual revenues and has remained operationally profitable. In December 2021, the company acquired rival marketplace TractorGuru, thereby strengthening its leadership in this space.
“The rural vehicle ecosystem is at the cusp of a digital revolution and our team at Tractor Junction are excited to tackle the opportunity that lies ahead. We are humbled to have the confidence of marquee investors like Info Edge and Omnivore who bring vast experience of building scalable businesses,” said Rajat Gupta, Co-Founder of Tractor Junction.
Business plans
The start-up plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, development of financial services, and launching physical stores for used tractor transactions across northern India.
Kitty Agarwal, Partner at Info Edge Ventures, said,Tractor Junction is bringing convenience, transparency, and affordability to the farm equipment buying process, thus empowering farmers and creating a winning ecosystem for all stakeholders.
Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner of Omnivore, observed, “By clearing the haze of information asymmetry, Tractor Junction is empowering smallholder farmers with access to valuable data and affordable high-quality farm vehicles. Tractor Junction will have a far-reaching impact on farmer profitability, and we at Omnivore are thrilled to support this journey.”
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