CROWDE

CROWDE is an agriculture-focused fintech startup that empowers farmers across Indonesia with technology and capital, connecting borrowers to retail and institutional lenders. Beyond connecting investors and farmers, CROWDE also integrates the entire agriculture ecosystem from suppliers to customers through technology, so that disbursement can be cashless and transparent. Capital is raised from crowd-investors as well as banks; but instead of given to farmers as cash, it is transferred to input providers who provide farmers with heavily discounted inputs due to the economy of scale. CROWDE also informs farmers what types of produce to grow based on market needs from CROWDE’s marketplace. When it is time to harvest, the farmer has no worries if the market is ripe for their product because a buyer has already been lined up. Profits are then shared with the farmers and investors at the end of the process. In this way, the farmers do not need to manage cash and receive the absolute best return — currently, three times their normal income — due to CROWDE’s market insights and economy of scale.