First Crowdfunding Platform Dedicated to Supporting Underfunded Rural Europe

LendSecured has launched a first-of-its-kind crowdfunding platform that helps European farmers secure financing, using grain as collateral. It addresses the 9 billion funding gap in the agricultural sector, thus impact financing rural Europe and driving its growth.

Farmers in rural Europe, particularly from such countries as Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Spain struggle to secure the necessary working capital to fund pre-harvest hiring and acquire necessary machinery, stifling regional and national growth.

According to a survey developed by the European Investment Bank and Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI):

—  12.2% of farms said that access to finance for investments was difficult in the previous year and 10.4% had difficulties in accessing finance for working capital.

—  For 10% of respondents, the key reason for not applying for bank finance was the fear of rejection.

—  10% of rejected bank applications were due to non-acceptance of livestock or other movable farm assets as collateral.

The LendSecured platform will alleviate the process of investment funding the agricultural sector, thus bringing more opportunities for growth in Emerging Europe. The makes use of a 3-way model to finance the loan. An agreement will be made between investors, farmers, and harvest buyers, with the harvest buyers buying the grain from the farmers and returning the interest to the lenders.

The idea is quite simple, at the start of every season, farmers need working capital to buy fertilizer, pay wages, fix machinery, so they borrow money, and repay it back at the end of season by selling their harvest.

For investors, the platform makes it possible to diversify their portfolios, support the development of rural Europe, and even choose to support organic vs. non-organic farmers.

“By improving access to funds for the EU rural area, we are driving innovation and creating more respectable working conditions. At the same time, providing investors with a diversified portfolio, which happens to also be a great alternative to short-term loans.

Investing in projects that also have added value to the EU economy brings together the ethos of responsible investing and mutual benefit, which we believe is the future of investing, and is in fact in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals.” – Nikita Goncars, co-founder of LendSecured

The team behind LendSecured has over 12 years of experience as a financial services provider and has built the platform with security and transparency in mind. As a result, no financing is held in LendSecured accounts, but rather in accounts owned by BNP Paribas bank via our partners LemonWay. The platform is in the process of obtaining the EU crowdfunding license that was launched in November of 2020. Additionally, the platform is AML compliant, and only accepts payments from SEPA countries.