Latvian fintech LANDE raises €550k in a pre-seed round

Riga-based fintech startup LANDE has raised €550,000 in a pre-seed investment round fuelling the expansion in Europe. LATBAN is the lead investor, with BADideas.fund and Seedrs joined the round, Tech Funding News informs.

• Founded in 2017 by Edgars Talums and Nikita Goncars, LANDE is a crowdfunding platform focused on financing the agricultural sector. It assists small and medium-sized farms in obtaining capital by using collateral such as machinery, land, or future harvest.
• So far, the platform has operated in the Baltics, issuing over €4.5 million in loan, with €3 million in loans issued in 2022. LANDE expects to achieve the financing volume of €15M in 2023. In total, the company has helped to finance over 300 local farmers.

“By enabling financial support to small and medium-sized European farms, LANDE is doing more than reducing the regional funding gap – we’re contributing to regional and global food affordability. More than 1700 investors have already registered on the platform to invest in Europe’s agricultural industry. It’s not only a good option to diversify one’s investment portfolio but also a chance to engage in supporting processes that affect billions of people’s lives,”

Nikita Goncars, CEO of LANDE, talks about the startup.

• Latvian Business Angels Network led the pre-seed round. The Riga-based BADideas.fund also joined the funding. It is an early-stage angel syndicate providing €50,000-€100,000 funding for CEE startups. In July 2022, the syndicate invested €100,000 in Lithuanian startup Breezit. The online equity crowdfunding company Seedrs provided some additional funding.
• LANDE will use the fresh capital to fund its European expansion, with main focus on the Romanian market.

You can read more about the Latvian startup scene in our Top 15 most active Baltic VC funds list, here.