WeGro Technologies, a Shariah compliant agricultural fintech start-up based in Dhaka, has secured US$100,000 in non-repayable funding from the Biniyog Briddhi program’s Impact Ready Matching Fund scheme.
Founded in April 2021, the fintech facilitates investment based on the Mudarabah concept to smallholder farmers who are unable to access formal financing. It currently has projects in over 10 zones in Bangladesh and impacts the lives of over 1,000 farmers.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the crop, livestock, fishery and forestry sectors employ approximately 40% of the total population.
Through WeGro, farmers can avail access to agricultural input and access to markets through a mobile app platform to facilitate financing for agricultural projects including cattle, poultry, fisheries and vegetables.
“WeGro will utilize the funding to scale up operations and integrate technology to improve processes and integrate multiple stakeholders seamlessly. We will also utilize this fund to expand our Farmer Care Center program across more zones in Bangladesh,” Md Mahmudur Rahman, CEO of WeGro, told ISFI.
According to Md Mahmudur, the fintech aims to impact over 3,000 farmers by March 2023 through the platform. It has also begun the development of a field facilitator application to enable implementation of e-KYC (electronic know-your-customer).
The Biniyog Briddhi program by Roots of Impact, the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and Light Castle Partners is a multiyear program which aims to boost the impact entrepreneurship landscape in Bangladesh. The program will collaborate with WeGro to set individualized impact management-related milestones for the utilization of the funding.
Prior to receiving funding from the Biniyog Briddhi program, the fintech raised US$15,294 from angel investors and received grants from the ICT Ministry and University Grants Commission worth US$23,529.
WeGro hopes to facilitate US$120 million in yearly financing by 2024. It also has ambitions to utilize the data from its financing operations to build its own proprietary credit rating engine for farmers.