Rural vehicle marketplace Tractor Junction raises $5.7 mn in seed funding round

Rural vehicle marketplace, Tractor Junction, announced on Thursday that it has raised $5.7 million in a "Seed round co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Omnivore." 

Existing investors, AgFunder GROW Impact Fund and Rockstart AgriFood Fund, also invested in the round, alongside angel investors, including Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal - the co-founders of Cars24 -- Vellayan Subbiah and Arun Venkatachalam from the Murugappa Group, and Sanjiv Rangrass. 

Tractor Junction plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, development of financial services, and launching physical stores for used tractor transactions across northern India, the company said in an official statement. 

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Tractor Junction is the domestic digital marketplace to buy, sell, finance, and insure new and used tractors, farm equipment, and rural commercial vehicles. 

The Noida-based company was founded in 2019 by Animesh Agarwal, Rajat Gupta, and Shivani Gupta. 

In December 2021, Tractor Junction acquired rival marketplace TractorGuru, a farm machinery portal. 

Commenting on the fundraise, Rajat Gupta, co-founder of Tractor Junction, said, "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." 

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Kitty Agarwal, Partner at Info Edge Ventures, stated, "The used tractor and farm equipment market is highly unorganised with a lack of established sales channels. As a result, farmers struggle with access to quality information and inventory for a relatively high value purchase.  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, the Managing Partner of Omnivore, said, "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."