The agricultural sector faces pressing labour shortages, severely impacting food production and logistical operations. In response, Voltrac, a deep-tech robotics startup based in Valencia, Spain, has developed Thor, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) purpose-built for autonomous agricultural and logistics applications. Today, Voltrac secured €7 million in seed funding led by Extantia with participation from FoodLabs, Antler, PUSH, and Prototype Capital. This infusion allows the company to scale production to 100 units annually starting in 2026.
Solving labour shortages in agriculture and frontline logistics
Founded in 2024 by Thomas Hubregtsen and Francisco Infante Aguirre, Voltrac aims to solve labour shortages in agriculture and frontline logistics, ensuring farming families retain their livelihoods. Their vision is to become an autonomous, software-driven vehicle that can adapt intelligently to diverse agricultural environments.
Francisco comments, “My grandfather started a company selling tractor implements in over 25 countries, and my family farmed the land. When there was nobody left to work the fields, we had to sell that land. We built Thor so other families won’t have to make that choice.”
Unlike John Deere and the Honghu T70, Voltrac engineered Thor from the ground up. It contains 70% fewer components, employs a distributed electric propulsion system with individual wheel motors, and has triple the battery capacity of competitors. Batteries are fully swappable, reducing downtime and maintenance costs by nearly 30% annually.
Thor supports tele-operation with autonomous functionality, enabling a single operator to control multiple units simultaneously. It is compatible with existing farm implements (ploughs, seed drills, atomisers), automating their operation and minimising capital expenditures.
Plus, Thor is a generational leap, combining European engineering excellence with advanced autonomy and adaptive crop management software.
What’s next?
Looking ahead, Voltrac aims to aggressively ramp up production at its Valencia facility to meet growing demand. Beyond agriculture, Thor’s design is being adapted for frontline logistics, capable of autonomously hauling up to 4 tonnes over rugged terrain.
“Voltrac has cracked what most hardware startups struggle with: cost. They’re not asking farmers or defence operators to pay a green premium – they’re already at price parity with diesel platforms and on track to undercut them,” said Yair Reem, Partner at Extantia.
Voltrac’s roadmap also includes advancing Thor’s autonomy levels further and developing reinforcement learning algorithms to optimise crop treatments dynamically, driving increased yields, higher efficiency, and greater sustainability.
