Agrolend Raises $53 Million in Series C Round Led by Creation Investments and Syngenta

Agrolend, a Brazilian digital bank focused on financing small and medium-sized rural producers, raised R$ 300 million (approx. USD 53 million) in a Series C funding round. The investment was led by Creation Investments, a Chicago-based private equity firm specializing in emerging market financial services, and Syngenta, the agricultural input giant’s corporate venture capital arm.

The funding round is among the largest in Brazil’s agtech sector, second only to the R$ 60 million raised by Solinftec in 2022. The transaction reflects a growing interest in agribusiness technology, especially as the industry faces ongoing challenges, such as rising input costs and fluctuating commodity prices.

Agrolend’s funding round attracted a diverse range of investors, including L4 Ventures (B3’s venture capital arm), Vivo Ventures, and Japan’s Norinchukin Bank, which manages approximately US$ 1 trillion in assets. Existing investors, such as Valor Capital, Lightrock, Yara Growth Ventures, SP Ventures, Provence Capital, and Barn Invest, also participated in the round.

The capital raised will boost Agrolend’s balance sheet and increase its lending capacity. The company plans to expand its portfolio to R$ 3 billion, serving approximately 10,000 rural producers. A portion of the funds will also be used to offer larger loans, ranging from R$ 5 million to R$ 50 million, targeting wholesale operations such as agricultural input distributors.

Agrolend operates through a fully digital platform, licensed as a credit, financing, and investment society by the Central Bank of Brazil. The company has already provided R$ 1.2 billion in credit to more than 12,000 rural producers. Its loans, typically for agricultural inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, come with interest rates ranging from 14% to 20%, depending on the collateral and loan duration. Despite a rise in default rates to 4% in 2024, Agrolend continues to see significant demand for its services.