Founded in 2016 in Londrina (PR), agfintech Bart Digital was a pioneer in the electronic issuance of Cédula de Produto Rural (CPR) and over the past few years has evolved its solution into a platform for credit, origination and monitoring of agricultural collateral, including other securities such as Cédulas de Crédito Bancário (CCBs) and duplicatas.
With around 50 companies as clients - including dealers, cooperatives, rural producers, trading companies, industries and securitization companies.
Now, the agfintech is paving the way to become a technological infrastructure focused on enabling agricultural finance. This means moving away from being a system itself and creating an ecosystem, fostering connection between customers. For example, facilitating the contact between a reseller and an investment fund (FIDCs, in particular).
Last year, the startup ran a 40-day pilot of this solution, facilitating connections in the areas of insurance, legal analysis, and credit distribution.
"We achieved very good results. We were able to originate R$ 170 million and, from this, we connected about R$ 40 million. Now we are mapping our clients' financial products," says Mariana Bonora, CEO and founder of Bart.
To evolve the platform and launch new product verticals, the agfintech raised R$ 5 million in a 'bridge' round with investors such as E3 Negócios and Bossanova Investimentos (through fintech and agtech pools), as well as angel investors with undisclosed names.
"We did this funding to bring the necessary product lines for a [future] Series A," says Mariana, exclusively to Finsiders.
Besides the financial resource, Mariana says that the funding brings important 'smart money' given Bossanova's network of connections and mentors, through the pools of fintechs and agtechs.
This is the second round of investments made by Bart since the business started. In 2017, the startup received R$2.2 million from SP Ventures, a Venture Capital manager specialized in agro and food, led by Francisco Jardim, who has in his portfolio other agfintechs such as Agrolend, Traive and Aegro.
The entrepreneur says that Bart's flagship continues to be Ativus, a SaaS platform that allows the issuance of drafts of titles and agricultural guarantees, electronic and digital signature and registration in registries and notaries. Recently, the fintech also developed Ativus Store, an API store where the customer can consume products and services related to the granting of credit, such as legal counseling and insurance.
In addition to software as a service, Bart has a "conveyor" model, aimed at clients - in general, agrochemical industries and FIDCs - that have more complex processes and need to lock workflows or create portals for receivables origination.
"We have a great case with Raízen. We serve both the company directly and the sugarcane suppliers that sell sugarcane to Raízen," Mariana exemplifies.
About competition with other agfintechs, the founder says that Bart has a proposal to be an 'enabler', helping other players to make their financing operations. In its customer base, even, are other fintechs. "We define ourselves as a technological infrastructure, with the concern of putting within the same platform various services and functionalities, and connecting customers to each other."
For her - who also occupies a director's chair at ABFintechs - in recent years several agfintechs have emerged, mainly focused on credit, and most are seeking to find a niche or market niche. At the same time, large agribusiness companies are trying to keep up with the digitalization movement in the field. "We are in a moment of transition, of testing models," she says.
Besides the technological evolution, Mariana sees the generational change as one of the important factors for the construction of new businesses, such as agfintechs. "There are people who were born in the technological world, entering farm management, leading the purchase of inputs. I also see a lot of fintechs founded by sons of farmers."
According to the latest Radar AgTech, produced by Embrapa, SP Ventures, and Homo Ludens, 12.6% of the 1,574 agtechs operate before the farm and, in this universe, 21.1% have solutions for credit, barter, insurance, carbon credits, and fiduciary analysis - the 2022 edition of the study has not yet been released.
On the list of agfintechs are names like Agrolend, A de Agro, MasterBarter, Nagro, TerraMagna, and Traive, among others.
There is no lack of potential, considering that the need for agricultural financing in Brazil is R$800 billion, according to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the government will make a total of R$ 340.88 billion available in the 2022/23 Crop Plan, which means an opportunity for alternative sources of financing beyond the large public and private banks.
Original Article in Finsiders
Founded in 2016 in Londrina (PR), agfintech Bart Digital was a pioneer in the electronic issuance of Cédula de Produto Rural (CPR) and over the past few years has evolved its solution into a platform for credit, origination and monitoring of agricultural collateral, including other securities such as Cédulas de Crédito Bancário (CCBs) and duplicatas.
With around 50 companies as clients - including dealers, cooperatives, rural producers, trading companies, industries and securitization companies.
Now, the agfintech is paving the way to become a technological infrastructure focused on enabling agricultural finance. This means moving away from being a system itself and creating an ecosystem, fostering connection between customers. For example, facilitating the contact between a reseller and an investment fund (FIDCs, in particular).
Last year, the startup ran a 40-day pilot of this solution, facilitating connections in the areas of insurance, legal analysis, and credit distribution.
"We achieved very good results. We were able to originate R$ 170 million and, from this, we connected about R$ 40 million. Now we are mapping our clients' financial products," says Mariana Bonora, CEO and founder of Bart.
To evolve the platform and launch new product verticals, the agfintech raised R$ 5 million in a 'bridge' round with investors such as E3 Negócios and Bossanova Investimentos (through fintech and agtech pools), as well as angel investors with undisclosed names.
"We did this funding to bring the necessary product lines for a [future] Series A," says Mariana, exclusively to Finsiders.
Besides the financial resource, Mariana says that the funding brings important 'smart money' given Bossanova's network of connections and mentors, through the pools of fintechs and agtechs.
This is the second round of investments made by Bart since the business started. In 2017, the startup received R$2.2 million from SP Ventures, a Venture Capital manager specialized in agro and food, led by Francisco Jardim, who has in his portfolio other agfintechs such as Agrolend, Traive and Aegro.
The entrepreneur says that Bart's flagship continues to be Ativus, a SaaS platform that allows the issuance of drafts of titles and agricultural guarantees, electronic and digital signature and registration in registries and notaries. Recently, the fintech also developed Ativus Store, an API store where the customer can consume products and services related to the granting of credit, such as legal counseling and insurance.
In addition to software as a service, Bart has a "conveyor" model, aimed at clients - in general, agrochemical industries and FIDCs - that have more complex processes and need to lock workflows or create portals for receivables origination.
"We have a great case with Raízen. We serve both the company directly and the sugarcane suppliers that sell sugarcane to Raízen," Mariana exemplifies.
About competition with other agfintechs, the founder says that Bart has a proposal to be an 'enabler', helping other players to make their financing operations. In its customer base, even, are other fintechs. "We define ourselves as a technological infrastructure, with the concern of putting within the same platform various services and functionalities, and connecting customers to each other."
For her - who also occupies a director's chair at ABFintechs - in recent years several agfintechs have emerged, mainly focused on credit, and most are seeking to find a niche or market niche. At the same time, large agribusiness companies are trying to keep up with the digitalization movement in the field. "We are in a moment of transition, of testing models," she says.
Besides the technological evolution, Mariana sees the generational change as one of the important factors for the construction of new businesses, such as agfintechs. "There are people who were born in the technological world, entering farm management, leading the purchase of inputs. I also see a lot of fintechs founded by sons of farmers."
According to the latest Radar AgTech, produced by Embrapa, SP Ventures, and Homo Ludens, 12.6% of the 1,574 agtechs operate before the farm and, in this universe, 21.1% have solutions for credit, barter, insurance, carbon credits, and fiduciary analysis - the 2022 edition of the study has not yet been released.
On the list of agfintechs are names like Agrolend, A de Agro, MasterBarter, Nagro, TerraMagna, and Traive, among others.
There is no lack of potential, considering that the need for agricultural financing in Brazil is R$800 billion, according to estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, the government will make a total of R$ 340.88 billion available in the 2022/23 Crop Plan, which means an opportunity for alternative sources of financing beyond the large public and private banks.
Original Article in Finsiders