Anterra Capital has led a $14 million Series B for Los Angeles-based agricultural fintech company ProducePay. Additional participants in the round include Rabo Frontier Ventures, Coventure, Social Leverage, FJ Labs, Greenhouse Capital, Moonshots Capital, and Tribeca Angels.
“By receiving financial support from Anterra Capital, the leading Food & AgTech VC, and Rabobank, the world’s premier Ag-focused bank, we are empowered to continue on the path to becoming the fintech leader of the produce industry,” said Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck, CEO, ProducePay.
Founded in 2015 with a mission to help farmers feed the world in a sustainable way, ProducePay provides fresh produce farmers with financial resources, tech tools, and data insights that address the lack of access to short-term financing and transparency within the agricultural supply chain. To do this, the company has created the first ever platform that secures perishable produce as a financial asset via technology. Through its services, ProducePay alleviates financial pressure for farmers, and opens clash flow for distributors, and has provided immediate access to financing for farmers and distributors in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Honduras, and Chile for fresh produce sold in on the U.S. market.
“We have spent the last three years reinventing how the produce industry accesses short term cash needs and the transparency of their supply chain,” said Borquez Schwarzbeck. “To date, ProducePay has helped move over $850 million of produce.”
In addition to financing, the company has also launched a suite of tech tools for online trading and data insights that can streamline the produce sales process. Through these channels, verified distributors and grower shippers to connect with new business partners, communicate digitally, and to access real-time pricing and market conditions.
“As the global leading Food & Agri bank, Rabobank aims to partner with revolutionary ventures in agriculture technology,” said Harrie Vollaard, head of Rabo Frontier Ventures at Rabobank. “ProducePay offers a solution that perfectly fits the Food & Agri ambitions of Rabobank. Their service addresses a significant pain point in the fresh produce value chain. The platform enables farmers to connect to food retailers in a more cost efficient and less risky way, of which all involved parties in the food value chain will benefit.”
After seeing significant growth, ProducePay plans to use this funding to support its next phase of expansion for its business, to scale up its financial services, and to further develop its software platform. In under four years the company has provided liquidity to more than 600 growers and distributors in six countries. In 2015, the year of its founding, the company financed $17 million in produce, and grew its business to finance $400 million in produce last year.
-Lynda Kiernan