Dhaka-based agri-tech startup WeGro Technologies Limited announced that it has secured $100,000 from Biniyog Briddhi programme’s Impact Ready Matching Fund (IRMF) scheme. With this, WeGro joins a prestigious cohort of impactful startups to be awarded this non-repayable funding for building their capacities in impact management and measurement.
WeGro at its core is an agri fintech, connecting individual and institutional financiers with farmers and their agricultural projects. Their motto: Investing in Agriculture, simplified. WeGro provides a mobile app platform (both Android and iOS) where users can facilitate finance for agricultural projects, such as cattle, poultry, fisheries, vegetables, etc. With projects in Sirajganj, Pabna, Natore, Keraniganj, Kishoreganj, etc, WeGro is working with over 1,000 farmers across 10 zones in the country.
WeGro provides investment and guidance to smallholder farmers who are otherwise unable to access formal financing elsewhere. Almost 10 Million farmers across the country do not have access to finance. Additionally, farmers can also avail access to agricultural input and access to markets. All of the projects are insured, monitored, scrutinized and available for the financiers to visit. After the output is produced, they sell the products to their partners (Chaldal, Parmeeda, Bidyanondo Foundation, Khaas Food Limited, etc.), thus ensuring fair prices for the farmers. WeGro takes pride in being Shariah compliant, thus the financiers receive a share of the profit and the ROI ranges from 16-24%.
WeGro was founded in April 2021 by Md Mahmudur Rahman and Md. Alvi Rahman, after the two founders raised project investments from their personal network of friends and peers to invest in their first farm project. Now in 2022, WeGro is seeking to raise $1.2 Million seed funding to expand their efforts across the entire country to impact the lives of 200,000 farmers by 2024
Biniyog Briddhi is a multi-year programme dedicated exclusively to boosting the impact entrepreneurship landscape in Bangladesh, by Roots of Impact, the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh & LightCastle Partners. Biniyog Briddhi will work collaboratively with WeGro Technologies Limited to come up with a set of individualized impact management-related milestones.
Cover photo: (From left to right) Md. Alvi Rahman (COO, WeGro), Md. Mahmudur Rahman (CEO, WeGro), Maxime Cheng (Lead Impact Intelligence & Education, Roots of Impact), Bijon Islam (CEO, Lightcastle Partners)
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