AgriG8

AgriG8 (pronounced "aggregate") is a Singapore-based agri-fintech company that connects capital markets with smallholder farming communities, focusing on rice cultivation in Asia. It translates agronomic data into risk signals so that institutional lenders can extend credit to smallholder farmers who are typically excluded because traditional credit assessment methods cannot price their risk at affordable interest rates.

The company's core product is CropPal, a gamified digital platform with three components: a farmer-facing app, a dashboard for lenders and farm managers, and a background validation framework backed by machine learning. Farmers report seeding approach, water management and nutrient management through the app and unlock real-world rewards such as loan rebates for submitting quality, verifiable data. The practice AgriG8 promotes most prominently is alternate wetting and drying (AWD), an irrigation method in which paddies are allowed to dry to about 15cm below the soil surface before reflooding to roughly 5cm, suppressing methane-producing bacteria while maintaining yields; combined with other measures this is described as reducing methane emissions by up to 55%.

AgriG8 has also designed the Rice Resilience Bond, an agronomy-backed financial instrument whose proceeds would fund direct lending to farmers, with a step-down structure that discounts loans for farmers who adopt and evidence sustainable practices, and with carbon credits generated from those practices offered to bond investors at a discount. The solution framework is organised around three stages — Access (lowering lender customer acquisition costs), Appraise (alternative credit assessment based on agronomic potential) and Assure (in-season risk mitigation) — built on technology, programme design and a human-centric approach.

Founding story

AgriG8 was launched in 2021 by David Chen and Joshua Tan as a new business spun out of Golden Sunland, the B Corp-certified Myanmar-focused rice company Chen co-founded in 2017 from his family's rice business. Covid-19 and the 2021 coup in Myanmar threatened the livelihoods of the farmers Golden Sunland worked with and constrained its growth, prompting a pivot; AgriG8 was created together with The Trendlines Group to connect investors with the underserved smallholder farming community.

Business model

AgriG8 positions financial institutions as its paying customers and smallholder rice farmers as the ultimate beneficiaries. It sells lenders tools that lower customer acquisition costs, provide an alternative agronomic credit assessment, and supply in-season risk mitigation to improve repayment rates, while farmers receive loan rebates for submitting verified data on sustainable water and nutrient management. Under the proposed Rice Resilience Bond structure, bond proceeds would be lent directly to farmers without an intermediary, and investors would receive first right of refusal at a discount on carbon credits generated from methane-reducing cultivation, with credit proceeds further offsetting farmer loans.

Financial institutions are identified as AgriG8's paying customers, purchasing access to its farmer acquisition, credit assessment and in-season risk mitigation capabilities; the Rice Resilience Bond structure additionally contemplates carbon credits generated by participating farmers being offered to bond investors at a discount.

Traction

The first pilot in central Thailand demonstrated farmer adoption of CropPal, with 80% of participants averaging 21 entries per season, data the company said would let it model farmer behaviour for a subsequent pilot. Further trials were planned in Vietnam and Cambodia. The company was a 2024 MIT Solve Global Economic Prosperity Challenge semi-finalist and reports winning the UNDP Intelligence for Climate & Nature Prize; it is backed by Better Bite Ventures and The Trendlines Group.

Latest developments

In June 2024 AgriG8 announced undisclosed investment from Better Bite Ventures and The Trendlines Group, funding regional pilots of its financing solution, and said it was in discussions with several climate, food and agritech investors in Asia-Pacific. It had completed its first pilot in central Thailand and planned a September pilot testing digital plus commercial incentives, alongside trials in Vietnam and Cambodia. The company subsequently reported winning the UNDP Intelligence for Climate & Nature Prize, and its leadership team is listed as David Chen CY (CEO), Joshua Tan SP (COO) and Aries Dwiputera Tan (CSO).