The Vilnius-based online marketplace that accelerates financing for agricultural enterprises HeavyFinance has received €3 million in a seed funding round. The investment was led by VC firm Practica Capital.
- Founded by Laimonas Noreika, HeavyFinance removes 1 gigaton of CO2 emissions through agricultural financing. The company operates as a marketplace, connecting investors – from retail to institutional – with European farmers in need of external financing to expand their farms and shift to regenerative agriculture. HeavyFinance facilitated financing to more than 1,000 agricultural ventures in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Portugal.
- The fresh round of investment was led by Practica Capital, an early-stage VC firm dedicated to backing Baltic tech startups. In January 2022, the firm co-led $4.9 million for Vilnius-based AI medical imaging company Oxipit together with Taiwania Capital, Practica Capital, and Coinvest Capital.
“HeavyFinance team is committed to transforming the traditional agricultural lending marketplace by incentivizing farmers to adopt sustainable and regenerative farming practices by providing them access to the necessary capital. By connecting farmers in Europe directly and introducing a proprietary soil-based carbon credit methodology, we anticipate creating a new channel for downstream corporates to offset their carbon credits and stimulating institutional capital investments in the green sector,”
Arvydas Bloze, Partner at Practica Capital said.
- The investment will help HeavyFinance to continue its European expansion, and double its current headcount of 33 staff over the next years. HeavyFinance will also use the funding to accelerate the switch from conventional farming to regenerative practices, enroll 200,000 hectares of regenerative farmland as part of a carbon farming initiative, and create direct access for businesses looking to offset their carbon footprint.
