April 19 (SeeNews) - Lithuania-based agricultural financing marketplace HeavyFinance said on Wednesday it launched a green loans instrument as part of plans to grow in the promising carbon credits market across Europe, including in Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria, by the end of 2023.
The fintech, which connects farmers with retail and institutional investors, intends to add to its portfolio over 150,000 hectares across Europe by year-end in line with its target to remove 1 gigaton of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, HeavyFinance said in a press release.
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To advance this goal, HeavyFinance last month raised 3 million euro ($3.3 million) in a seed round led by Lithuanian venture capital firm Practica Capital. The funds will also help double the company's headcount of 33.
To date, HeavyFinance has enabled over 1,300 agricultural ventures in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal to secure financing.
The new green loans instrument is geared to provide between 7 million euro and 10 million euro of debt capital in the first year of its existence, providing carbon certificates for investors while supporting farmers with the mass adoption of regenerative practices to tackle climate change in a hard-to-abate sector. The loans will support carbon farming – an approach that aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere by storing them underground, in turn leading to increased yields.
HeavyFinance points to benefits for farmers in terms of environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically viable results. Improved practices reduce soil erosion and increase resiliency to high temperatures, droughts, and floods, according to the press release.
($ = 0.9147 euro)