Cropital: A Philippine Crowdfunding Agribusiness Investment

Crowdfunding has the same idea as Mutual Funds or Pool of Funds wherein a large crowd of people is invited to fund a project or an idea being proposed. The pooled amount will then be used to realize the project.

Once the project will come to fruition, the investors will be able to receive a portion of the proceeds depending on the markets’ behavior and the agreed terms.

Unlike any other investments, raising of funds via crowdfunding can be entirely done through the internet, which is the very reason why it became popular to people who want to diversify their investments without leaving their homes.

Crowdfunding investment has become one of the “in”vestments nowadays, making it a popular asset accumulation option for millennials.

Because of the great advantages of crowdfunding, several agricultural sectors have already ventured into it, allowing real farmers and livestock raisers to raise a good amount of capital without going through the painful process of having banks loans.

Crowdfunding initiatives also aim to save our farmers from having informal loans with more or less 20% interest to be paid.

At the moment, there are existing Philippine-based Agricultural Crowdfunding investments which are 100% legit such as Farmon, Philcrowd, and DV Boer. But now, let me just focus on Cropital, which is also a legit crowdfunding platform that connects anyone to help finance our Filipino farmers.

What is Cropital?

Cropital was formed by a millennial team which is founded by three Agribusiness-minded individuals, Ruel Amparo, Rachel de Villa, and Everett Ubiadas last November 2015. Such startup seeks to generate funds from local and domestic investors in order to provide capital to Filipino farmers.

This modern concept of bayanihan is globally recognized by huge institutions for promoting scalable and sustainable enterprise to Filipino farmers. _{Raising Funds for Farmers via Crowdsourcing | Philippine Daily Inquirer}

For the investors, investing in Cropital starts with selecting the farm that you want to fund based on the farm options provided by Cropital. Once this particular farm will be fully-funded, Cropital will then provide the farmers with the necessary resources they need in order to start the production.

The net profit to be shared between the investors and the farmers will greatly depend on the crops’ proceeds.

Cropital has two investment options: Short term and Long term

Short-term Investment

This investment option has a gestation period of 3 to 18 months. Farmers’ background is being shown with their respective requested amount of capital to be funded, mostly ranging from P10,000-P75,000 per farmer.

To access the farmers to be funded, you must first signup to Cropital’s website, and this is how it looks like:

All the necessary pieces of information are being provided which includes the farmer’s background, harvesting period, farm area, farm location, and the amount to be raised.

The investors have the options to choose the type of returns they prefer, whether it is profit sharing or fixed returns. Historically, Cropital investors were able to gain 3-30% returns on investments.

The frequently asked questions about Cropital’s short-term investment program can be found HERE

Long-term investment:

Cropital does not only aim to increase the income opportunity for both the farmers and the investors, but also to increase the source of renewable energy by growing Napier Plants.

A Napier Plant is also known as Pakchong, a grass that grows up to four meters in six months. This can be used as biomass which can be converted to fuel.

Cropital saw the global demand of Napier Plants with 50 to 100 million tons per year, which is growing 15-25% annually. Napier plants have a very high yield with 300 to 400 potential wet wt tons per year. It can grow in marginal lands and can be harvested twice a year.

Below is the sample table for the profit of P5,000 investment, which could have a realistic ROI of around 46% after 60 months. The lowest possible ROI (pessimistic) is 32% while the highest possible ROI (optimistic) is 87%.

The frequently asked questions about Cropital’s long-term investment program can be found HERE.

Like any other investments, Crowdfunding has its own risks. In Agribusiness crowdfundings like Cropital, the greatest risk would be the force of nature. But if you’re fully aware of the risks and decides to invest with Cropital, you may do so by checking their website, Cropital.