September 7 (SeeNews) - Latvian agricultural financing and crowdfunding startup LANDE said on Wednesday it has raised a pre-seed round of 550,000 euro ($544,940) to expand its platform to Romania.
By expanding to Romania, LANDE will support the country's highly active agricultural sector, currently affected by increased production costs as a result of the current geopolitical situation, as well as the ongoing climate crisis, it said in a press release.
You can download the 2023 Agriculture industry in Southeast Europe report here
Accounting for 10% of EU grain and oilseed production, Romania is a significant food exporter in the region. By making financing more accessible for medium and small farms to invest in improving their productivity and efficiency, there's potential for increased production output, LANDE added.
LANDE allows underfunded farmers obtain financing by using future harvest, machinery, or land as collateral. The company's platform has so far operated in the Baltics region and has issued over 4.5 million euro in loans to date.
"More than 1,700 investors have already registered on the platform to invest in Europe's agricultural industry," LANDE CEO Nikita Goncars said.
According to the Latvian company, the total agricultural funding gap in Europe is estimated at 46 billion euro, as due to the escalating energy crisis and the rise in production costs, farmers across Europe lack funds to start the season.
LANDE aims to facilitate access to the lacking capital for local farmers, having provided financing to more than 300 small and medium-sized farms so far. In 2022 alone, the platform has issued 3 million euro in loans and expects the number to reach 15 million euro in 2023.
In 2021, the company merged with agricultural crowdfunding platform LendSecured, becoming a full-service platform.
($=1.0093 euro)