Lande reveals expansion plans
Lande is expanding. The agricultural peer-to-peer lending platform already operates in Latvia and Lithuania, with investors based across the European continent. But in the coming months, the platform will add Romania to the list.
After that, Ričards Maļecs, account manager at Lande, has even more markets in his sight.
“We plan to expand into other European countries and we are particularly looking forward to working in Greece, Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria,” he said.
It is no accident that Lande is eyeing expansion in the most agriculturally productive countries in the European bloc. The platform lends exclusively to farmers, helping them to access financing to grow their businesses or implement newer technologies.
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First up is Romania.
“Romania was the obvious choice for us because it is one of the biggest farming markets in the EU with a huge financial gap compared to other countries,” says Malecs. “Farmers in Romania are hungry for funding.”
Romanian farmers are especially interested in financing smart technology projects and investing in precision farming tools which will help them to optimise their processes. This is a trend that Malecs has noticed across Europe.
“In bigger markets, borrowers are seeking more technology,” he says. “They are modernising.”
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Lande will be launching in Romania within the first six months of 2023. From that point onwards, Romanian farmers will be able to apply for funding. But Malecs hopes that the addition of Romanian loans to the platform will also inspire more Romanian investors to join in.
“We are already open to investors from Romania but their presence is not so significant,” he says.
“Most of our investors are based in Germany, France and Spain.
“However, in the past we have noticed that as we list new loans in their local communities, more local investors appear. When we started to lend more actively in Lithuania we noticed that we started to get more Lithuanian investors as well.”
The recent European crowdfunding service providers regulation (ECSPR) has made it easier for platforms like Lande to grow their presence across the continent. Lande has already applied for its ECSPR licence, but in the meantime the platform continues to be regulated by Latvian officials.
Malecs is bullish on the impact of the new regulations, saying that he believes it will “help weed out the bad market players from the good ones, while also providing better products for borrowers.”
At the moment, Lande does not plan to expand its offering outside the EU, but the platform is still extremely ambitious. In the medium term, Lande hopes to launch on the stock market and grow its user base in all countries – including the UK.
“We are open to UK investors,” says Malecs. “All investors can back European farmers with a minimum investment of just €50 (£43), and they can access our secondary market with a minimum investment of €2.
“All our projects are backed by collateral, and we target returns of up to 13 per cent, which beats the current rate of inflation in both the UK and the EU.”
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