INNOVATION FOR INSPIRATION - NPM, PLATFORM FOR INCLUSIVE ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
INNOVATION FOR
INSPIRATION
INNOVATIVE TECH COMPANIES IN FARMER FINANCE
March 2019 FMO and NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance
1
CONTENTS
▪ Introduction
▪ Companies
• Impact Terra • SarVision
• Awamo • CERSGIS
• Harvesting • Skymet
• Agrocenta • DeHaat
• Satelligence • Stellapps
• Tulaa • Agri-wallet
• EARS • Apollo Agriculture
• YAPU solutions • VanderSat
• Weather Impact • CropIn
• FutureWater • Hello Tractor
2
INTRODUCTION
On February 19th, FMO and NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance hosted a webinar on
Technological Innovations to enable Farmer Finance.
Four expert speakers – Rajiv Shetty, Celine Nobel from VanderSat, Krishna Kumar from
CropIn, and Jehiel Oliver from Hello Tractor – shared their insights on how different
technology solutions can help in reaching, selecting and monitoring different groups of
farmers.
To continue to spark your interest in this topic, we have prepared this brochure featuring a
variety of innovative technology companies active in this space. These companies may help
you in your endeavour to serve farmers.
Please note that not all companies have undergone a due diligence, nor received an
investment from FMO or other NpM members.
We hope this brochure inspires you.
Warm regards,
FMO and NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance
3
INTRODUCTION FMO
FMO is the Dutch development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports
sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing
in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to
economic and social development and has a more than 45-year proven track-record of
empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life.
FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions,
energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 9.2 billion
spanning over 90 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector developments
banks globally.
Fintech can help FMO achieve its goals since it is a key driver for financial inclusion. Fintech
solutions have the potential to rapidly close financing gaps for small- and medium-sized
entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers and youth. Therefore, FMO has a Fintech team in place
to help its existing client base of financial institutions leverage Fintech solutions; to invest in
Fintech companies that have inclusive business models; and to digitize and make future-
proof FMO’s own business model.
For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl
4
INTRODUCTION NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance
NpM, Platform for Inclusive Finance (NpM), is the leading national platform for inclusive finance
worldwide. NpM brings together Dutch development organisations, social investors and commercial banks
active in the inclusive finance sector. Together with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NpM’s 13
members share a commitment to expand access to finance in underserved regions and to anticipate
changing needs in the sector, to grow towards a responsible industry. The members are active in over 97
countries and have committed EUR 4 billion to the sector through over 1100 financial service providers.
The Geodata for Inclusive Finance and Food (G4IFF) trajectory was initiated by Rabobank Foundation,
FMO, the Netherlands Space Office, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ICCO
and NpM. The goal of the trajectory is to increase access to finance for smallholder farmers as well as
improve food production by using satellite applications. In order to promote such projects, NpM launched a
Geodata Innovator’s Challenge, where participants were challenged to make geodata information available
for financial service providers (FSPs). Allowing for cost reduction, improved risk management and greater
outreach for FSPs, and for higher yield and suitable financial product design for smallholders.
For more information: please visit www.inclusivefinanceplatform.nl
5
IMPACT TERRA Golden Paddy digital platform
Company details
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: South-East Asia
Service offered: Loan origination services
Contact: Erwin Sikma
erwin@impactterra.com
Impact Terra is an agricultural and financial technology social business, providing digital services to farmers and
organisations through its Golden Paddy platform. We are active in South East Asia, specifically in Myanmar where 70% of
the population is involved in farming and connected by smartphones. We already serve more than 40,000+ smallholders and
are growing fast.
We develop innovative bespoke financial solutions that meet the farmer’s crop cycle requirements and make business sense
to financial service providers. Farmers require loans to finance their crop production, covering the period from purchasing
seeds to harvesting and selling their crop. They need the flexibility to repay their loan in one installment after harvest time
rather than being forced to do monthly interest payments.
We support financial service providers, particularly Micro-Finance Institutes (MFIs) in developing tailored products,
integrating these into operations, sourcing the best farmers (“lead generation”), collecting loan origination data; (incl. basic
credit risk assessment), monitoring and advising the farmers during the production cycle. This enables MFIs to move into this
large market segment with limited risk and lower operating costs. It also supports MFIs and its DFI/MIVs in reaching their
social and environmental objectives. Financial inclusion is now less of a dream and more of a reality, even to those living in
the most remote locations.
6AWAMO
Company details
Established in: 2015
Regional focus: East Africa
Service offered: Core banking system, digitization
Contact: Benedikt Kramer
sales.ug@awamo.com
Manage and control your microfinance business with awamo® 360.
awamo® 360 lets you manage the whole business digitally and with ease. Using our mobile and biometric technology you
are perfectly equipped to take your microfinance business to the next level.
Imagine that: You can do business at your desk or anywhere with your Android® mobile device. Enrolling new clients
including photo and client data? 5 minutes. File a loan application? 10 minutes. It gets even better: No matter what, your data
is always safe and backed-up. Updates are free forever and are ready-to-use without any installation or server hassle. Plus,
everything can be secured with top-notch biometric technology to make sure that you know who you lend to. Sounds
incredible? Welcome to awamo® 360.
7HARVESTING
Company details
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: Africa, Asia
Service offered: Agricultural finance
Contact: Julie Cheng
julie@harvesting.com
Harvesting leverages a high-performance computing infrastructure and AI to take satellite, climate, and other data, clean it,
and convert it into actionable insight on the crop activity of individual smallholder farms. This data is delivered to clients via
APIs and updated every 15 days.
We currently provide 17 data points including historical crop activity and current indicators such as crop health and soil
moisture, as well as predictions on future planting and harvesting dates.
We deliver this data through loan software which includes mobile data collection, credit scoring, and farmland monitoring.
The mobile data collection app allows lenders to gather farmer data on-site, improving the speed and accuracy of data
gathering. The collected data flows into a credit risk scoring system which leverages alternative data including Harvesting’s
crop activity data. Credit risk scoring can also improve the efficiency of the loan approval process. Once a loan is made, a
farmland monitoring system helps track crop activity remotely.
This agri-lending suite can help lenders (i) improve efficiencies throughout the loan process, (ii) reduce the high transaction
costs of working with smallholder farmers, and by doing so (iii) expand the lender’s market to include previously hard to serve
farmer communities.
8AGROCENTA
Company details
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: Sub Saharan Africa
Service offered: Agricultural finance
Contact: Francis A. Obirikorang
francis@agrocenta.com
AgroCenta's key solution AgroPay offers smallholder farmers in rural Ghana access to financial services such as mobile
payment via mobile money for commodities sold on the AgroTrade platform, access to input financing such as financing of
seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services etc., Crop insurance in case of drought and finally pension for the informal
sector where farmers can enjoy pension benefits once they retire from active agriculture
9SATELLIGENCE
Company details
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: West-, Central-Africa, South-East Asia
Service offered: Remote sensing
Contact: Nanne Tolsma
tolsma@satelligence.com
Satelligence works in soft commodity supply chains to make satellite data work on the ground in the areas of the world where
it makes the biggest difference. We developed a forest and commodity platform to help supply chain stakeholders manage
sustainable crop production with satellite data. Our platform enables financial institutions to include agriculture smallholders
and track the sustainability of small and large investments in information sparse regions. We answer questions such as:
where are the low risk oil palm smallholders that require financing for replanting? What is the risk of flooding in these areas?
How much deforestation is happening or happened in the past in the area of my investment? By creating actionable data
from satellites for applications in commodity supply chains we enable our clients to feed the world while protecting the world's
natural resources.
10TULAA
Company details
Established in: 2017
Regional focus: East Africa
Service offered: Agriculture platform
Contact: Hillary Miller-Wise
hillary@tulaa.io
Tulaa is a digital marketplace for smallholder farmers. Using mobile technology and artificial intelligence, we link farmers to
inputs on credit and buyers at harvest time. Through our platform, farmers can place an order for inputs like seed and
fertilizer and apply for a loan to purchase them. We use a proprietary algorithm to credit score the farmer using alternative
data. If approved, Tulaa pays the nearest retailer for the order and an electronic voucher to the farmer for collection. Tulaa
then sends tailored agronomic tips throughout the season and predicts the yield prior to harvest. Tulaa then uses AI to match
farmers to buyers on our platform at harvest. Farmers can sell their produce to traders on our platform at fair and transparent
prices. By layering our technology on existing human networks like agro-vet retailers and traders, we make markets work
better for smallholder farmers in Africa.
11EARS Earth Environment Monitoring
Company details
Established in: 1977
Regional focus: Emerging markets
Service offered: Remote sensing
Contact: Patrick Vercauteren
patrick@ears.nl
EARS – Monitoring and analyzing weather risk in agriculture
EARS Earth Environment Monitoring, established in 1977, has years of experience in satellite-based precipitation, drought
and climate monitoring. With a long data history and real time monitoring, EARS provides insight into climatic risks in
agriculture. EARS offers reliable, quick and low-cost parametric solutions for index insurance, credit scoring and saving
schemes.
Drought is one of the main causes of crop failure in rain-fed agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and climate change will
increase the impact of drought events. Low-cost index based micro-insurance can be an effective approach to mitigate the
financial impact of crop losses and potentially a way to achieve financial inclusion of vulnerable populations.
Since 2009, EARS provides drought index products for crop insurance in Africa. Products have been piloted or sold in 15+
countries, for a range of seasonal and perennial crops, including wheat, maize, rice, sorghum, soy, sesame, cotton, coffee
and pasture. These products are mostly based on EARS Relative Evapotranspiration (RE). RE is a measure for water
leaving the earth surface and hence a measure for water actually used by plants.
12YAPU SOLUTIONS
Company details
Established in: 2017
Regional focus: Latam, Africa, expanding into Asia
Service offered: Software, financial advisory
Contact: Hannes Gräf
hannes.graef@yapu.solutions
YAPU Solutions is a Berlin based company, that provides a one-stop off-the-shelf solution for financial institutions of all sizes
and maturity levels to digitalize their work-flows and integrate additional analysis layers. The software structures, systemizes
and digitalizes the customer data gathering in the field via dynamic questionnaires on mobile devices. It provides cutting
edge data analytics for customer assessment and automated reports that support decision making. Thereby, it assures
constant institutional learning.
The software manages all economic sectors and activities with a specific focus on the expansion of financial services in rural
areas, especially in agriculture. It exploits geo-localized referential data for costs and revenues of clients activities, for
plausibility checks and automatic cashflow projection. YAPU Solutions provides its clients with the ability to conduct a 360°
credit risk analysis which integrates production, market, and climate indicators. Social and environmental indicators can be
added at no additional cost.
By building on existing financial institutions’ capacity and infrastructure, YAPU enhances their process, risks, and business
management. FIs are enabled to integrate international best practices, including relevant climate technologies for climate
change adaptation/mitigation, into daily operations at the local level. YAPU Solutions also provides support and advisory
services on inclusive finance.
13WEATHER IMPACT
Company details
Established in: 2014
Regional focus: Africa, South-East Asia
Service offered: Meteorology
Contact: Fiona van der Burgt
fiona.vanderburgt@weatherimpact.com
Weather Impact is specialized in delivering tailored weather information to various actors in the agri-food sector. We provide
tailored weather forecasts as well as long-term analysis of weather and climatology.
We combine state-of-the-art stochastic weather models, satellites and ground observations. Our analysis techniques and
algorithms are perfectly suited to translate this data into value added products or services. For example, operational weather
and climate risk indicators for the agri-financial sector.
14FUTURE WATER
Company details
Established in: 2002
Regional focus: Sub-Saharan Africa, South-East Asia
Service offered: Water and Agriculture
Contact: Martijn de Klerk
m.deklerk@futurewater.nl
Through its Flynance service, FutureWater provides essential information on agricultural productivity and water use: (i) at an
ultra-high spatial resolution, (ii) with unprecedented flexibility in location and timing, (iii) based on wavelengths not observable
by the human eye, and (iv) with a country-specific business-oriented approach. Trained local operators deploy low-cost
Flying Sensors (drones) to ensure that farmers obtain information at their specific level of understanding, while
simultaneously developing a regional network of service providers. Dynamic information on farmer performance, as well as
data on the scope for improvement, provide FSPs with key insights in risks associated with a potential loan. Flynance offers
FSPs crucial information to increase effectiveness of their monitoring campaigns, reduce costs, and facilitate timely
restructuring of loans. By coupling Flying Sensor technology with crop growth models, a real-time indication can be given of
expected crop yields for the growing season, which can be translated to revenue and, if desired, a credit score. Farmers will
benefit from the Flynance service by having an increase in yields and decrease in costs of inputs and fertilizers, putting them
in a stronger financial position when applying for a loan at a financial institution.
15SARVISION
Company details
Established in: 2000
Regional focus: Africa, South-East Asia
Service offered: Geodata provider
Contact: Martin Vissers
vissers@sarvision.nl
SarVision is a private company founded by researchers of the Wageningen University. SarVision offers continuous earth
monitoring services, providing near real time analytics to customers. Our mission is to provide the best tools for efficient
nature conservation, agriculture and sustainable land management.
We support FSPs by providing high resolution systematic crop monitoring services, leveraging on our in-house cutting edge
technologies for processing radar satellite images. Our services include crop types mapping, crop growth stages and crop
biomass monitoring and yield forecast.
Our technology is weather-independent, based on radar data which “sees through clouds”. It has been directly demonstrated
by SarVision in ongoing operational services for agro-business companies. Experience shows that it can be applied to very
small fields with high accuracy (90% accuracy of rice growth stages monitoring has been achieved in the Mekong Delta).
By providing data on past and current crop performances at field level, SarVision technology makes it easier for FSPs to
assess the farmers’ ability to repay a loan, thereby reducing transaction cost and increasing access to finance for smallholder
farmers. Moreover, current crop monitoring enables FSPs to register events that usually trigger a pay out or collection of a
credit, thereby reducing monitoring costs.
16CERSGIS Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services
Company details
Established in: 2000
Regional focus: West Africa
Service offered: Monitoring, Evaluation, BI
Contact: Foster Mensah
fmensah@ug.edu.gh
By facilitating the delivery of financial services to smallholder farmers in a user friendly, cost effective and convenient
manner, we support financial inclusiveness of smallholder farmers by providing financial institutions with reliable crop
mapping and monitoring services in environments with poor infrastructure to make hassle-free loan disbursement decisions.
Our solutions are based on working with supply chain companies and to deliver applications related to sustainable agriculture
by linking satellite technologies with agricultural science to address requirements and needs of financial institutions.
We have user-engagement protocols that enable us to constantly engage with financial institutions to understand and assess
their needs and requirements.
17SKYMET Weather Services Private Limited
Company details
Established in: 2003
Regional focus: India
Service offered: Weather Risk Management
Contact: Yogesh Patil
yogesh.patil@skymetweather.com
Skymet has India's largest network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and combined with advanced data analytics in the
back end provide accurate weather forecasting.
Building on the weather solution and with deploying feet on the ground, Skymet has developed an innovative agricultural
credit risk analysis system for banks, insurance companies and various other businesses assosiated with rural India.
It integrates individual farmer details from cadastral maps with cropping data from satellites and weather data from Skymet’s
proprietary network of AWS. The software helps banks to digitally sanction and renew KCC loans, making direct farmer
lending more efficient, objective, and transparent.
18DeHAAT
Company details
Established in: 2012
Regional focus: India
Service offered: End-to-end value chain services
Contact: Shashank Kumar
shashank@agrevolution.in
DeHaat has been evolved as a robust technology based farmers marketplace to offer complete end to end services to
farmers - 'seed to market". Currently more than 50,000 farmers in eastern India (Bihar, UP & Odisha) are registered with
DeHaat and getting direct access to quality agri inputs, customised crop advisory and markets (to ITC, Godrej, Reliance,
Metro, Spencers). DeHaat remains with farmers throughout the value chain through it's digital as well as physical network
and targets to provide 360 degree agricultural services to 1 million farmers by 2022.
We have created a network of 130+ DeHaat micro entrepreneurs. Platform has listed 500+ input SKUs and 110+ bulk buyers
for farmers. It also has an exhaustive crop pest database of 22 major crops and multiple features for customized crop
advisory. We have successfully developed and deployed tech interfaces at each level – for farmers, micro entrepreneurs and
warehouses – which creates 100% visibility for our stakeholders.
19STELLAPPS TECHNOLOGIES
Company details
Established in: 2011
Regional focus: India
Service offered: IoT solutions for the dairy value chain
Contact: Ranjith Mukundan
ranjith.mukundan@stellapps.com
Stellapps Technologies is India’s first dairy IoT solutions company, building automation tools integrated with cloud, mobility,
and data analytics. Stellapps automated milk collection units (AMCUs) cater to 871,000 dairy farmers across six states,
processing INR 10 crore of farmer payments daily. In addition, Stellapps offers solutions for cold chain management, farmer
wallet applications and cattle insurance.
20AGRI-WALLET
Company details
Company name: Dodore Holland BV
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: Africa & Asia
Service offered: Supply chain finance
Contact: Ad Rietberg
arietberg@dodore.org
Agri-wallet is a unique supply chain finance service for farmers, cooperatives, food processors and input suppliers.
The digital mobile solution uses stable tokens to reduce risks, lower transaction cost and keep funds inside efficient
value chains. Agri-wallet is supported by the Rabobank Foundation and the Mastercard Foundation. Financial
institutions use Agri-wallet to reach underserved parts of the agri-food supply chain. Partners like the World Food
Programme (WFP) and SNV use the Agri-wallet to give their farmers access to finance and increase their
agricultural production. Agri-wallet was developed by Dodore in Amsterdam & Nairobi and is scaling quickly in
Kenya to 100,000 users by the end of 2019. India, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Benin are on
the roll-out map. Agri-wallet won the NpM Innovators Challenge pioneering geodata to profile farmers, predict
attainable yield, improve credit scoring, smart weather insurance and tailor financial services for effective value
chains and rural economic development.
21APOLLO AGRICULTURE
Company details
Established in: 2016
Regional focus: Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya)
Service offered: Agriculture, Financial Technology
Contact: Elizabeth Mastors
liz@apolloagriculture.com
Apollo Agriculture is an agricultural fintech company founded to help smallholder farmers maximize their
profits. We provide high quality inputs, insurance, agronomic advice, and financing, to smallholder farmers
in a low-cost and highly scalable way, using automated operations and satellite data in place of an
extensive field presence. By reducing the expense and operational complexity of smallholder lending, we
aim to finance even the most remote of Africa’s 50M smallholder farmers in a commercially viable and
scalable way.
22VANDERSAT
Company details
Established in: 2015
Regional focus: Global (within G4IFF focus on Kenya)
Service offered: Satellite Data Company
Contact: Celine Nobel
cnobel@vandersat.com
VanderSat is the only satellite data company in the world that provides high resolution data on water, vegetation and
temperature. Every day, globally and without being limited by clouds or darkness. We have a record that tells us for the last
40 years what happened with the water inside the soil and with the crops on the ground. This data is crucial for providing
sustainable financial services to smallholders. Combining the VanderSat dataset with historical loan and payment data,
provides revolutionary insights. For the first time it is possible to distinguish and quantify the risk of non-payment among
smallholders. With our satellite data this risk can be attributed to the climate, farmer ability and paying capacity of one
individual farmer at field scale. And this is what inspired us to develop TARA, the Tool for Agricultural Risk Advice. TARA is a
global risk assessment platform for credit scoring and agricultural advice, that is tailored to the needs of financial service
providers. Within the G4IFF-program, TARA is developed by VanderSat, ACRE Africa and Tulaa. However, as the data
behind TARA is highly scalable, it can be easily upscaled to other countries and other organizations.
Will you be the next to be connected to the TARA platform?
23CROPIN Technology Solutions Private Limited
Company details
Established in: 2010
Regional focus: Africa, South East Asia
Service offered: Agriculture Technology
Contact: Jyoti Anisetty
jyoti@cropin.com
CropIn is a leading “Full-Stack AgTech" organization that provides SaaS solutions to agribusinesses globally. CropIn enables
data-driven farming by interconnecting different stakeholders in the agri value-chain. With the vision to "maximize per acre
value" and the mission to "make every farm traceable", CropIn adds value by increasing efficiency, scaling productivity and
strengthening sustainability across the board.
SmartRiskTM , CropIn’s predictive and prescriptive market intelligence solution, empowers agri-lending and agri-insurance
institutions to leverage satellite image analytics and agri-alternate data for effective crop production monitoring, risk mitigation
and forecasting. The award-winning AI- and ML-based platform detects cropping patterns and predicts the future of the crop,
thus highlighting the associated risk and opportunity for agri-stakeholders. Additionally, it helps to evaluate the
creditworthiness of a farmer by providing historical farm data, and also enables plot-level risk profiling for focussed field
audits.
SmartRiskTM helps to improve the loan collection process, optimize the loan disbursement process, manage portfolios and
loan delinquency, and pre-emptively assess NPA to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with agri-lending. CropIn thus
allows financial institutions to expand their lending portfolios to new regions with higher confidence.
24HELLO TRACTOR
Company details
Established in: 2014
Regional focus: Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia
Service offered: Agriculture Technology
Contact: Priscilla Asonibare
omotolani@hellotractor.com
Hello Tractor is an agricultural technology company that connects tractor owners to farmers through an Internet-of-Things
(IoT) digital solution that bridges the gap between traditional farming and more technologically advanced approaches. Our
platform simplifies complex data to make tractors profitable as business assets even in smallholder farming systems. This
disruptive technology holds the potential to increase agricultural productivity and farmer income for a more secure global food
system.
Hello Tractor recently collaborated with IBM to pilot an advanced agricultural analytics and decision-making tool, powered by
artificial intelligence and the IBM blockchain technology, that provides banks with information for better underwriting and
portfolio management. The platform allows financial institutions to view and track the utilization of tractors to determine a
credit portfolio for the farmer and tractor owner, while also evaluating forecasted utilization to make credit decisions for
tractor owners based on verified and trusted data on the blockchain.
Hello Tractor is using advanced technology to provide banks, leasing companies, and dealers with tools to better deploy
capital into the contractor market to support economic growth and development. By making better decisions these institutions
can reach more customers, thereby amplifying their revenue and impact.
25CLICK TO EDIT MASTER TITLE STYLE
Disclaimer
The information used in this document is strictly confidential. By acceptance of this document, the recipient agrees to
keep the information in this document confidential to such person. The information is neither to be disclosed to any other
person, nor copied or reproduced in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Nederlandse Financierings-
Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (“FMO”). The distribution of this document in certain jurisdictions may be
restricted and accordingly persons into whose possession this document may come are required to have themselves
informed of and to observe any such restrictions. This document is intended to present general information and does not
constitute an offer for, or an invitation to subscribe to or acquire, any interests in one or more investment funds and does
not constitute investment advice.
26You can also read
