How Fintech Is Flourishing on U.S. Farms
While agri-fintech once seemed like an outlier, today it’s a baseline expectation for retailers and their grower-customers, writes Editor Lara Sowinski at CropLife, a Global Ag Tech Initiative sister brand.
Retailers are increasingly asking, “How can I make doing business easier for my growers financially and operationally in one place,” according to Tracy Linbo, Chief Commercial Officer at AgVend, a leading digital enablement partner for agribusiness.
In July, CHS Capital became the latest organization to integrate with AgVend, joining Agri-Access (Compeer), AgQuest, CFA, TruChoice by Corteva, Growers Edge, John Deere Financial, ProPartners, and WinField Secure, to allow retailers to offer flexible financing options that fit their customers’ needs.
Linbo said embedded financing tools reduce paperwork, streamline credit approvals, and give both retailers and growers more visibility into the status of financial transactions.
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In addition, offering financing directly through a retailer’s portal eliminates the friction of disconnected tools or manual processes. This helps reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), improves forecasting, and gives ag retailers peace of mind around risk exposure.
For retailers it helps them manage financing programs to support sales growth. For growers, it creates a smoother purchasing experience, Linbo says. “Finance is no longer a separate task; it’s part of their buying journey.”
AgVend is strengthening its relationship with its nine finance partners to harmonize the end-to-end experience making it more robust.
Currently, “Each of these partners has a very different experience,” Linbo says. “There’s anything from the basics, like simply displaying the balance that a grower has on their loan, all the way to applying for the loan and having a white-label solution.”
“AgVend is working to bring all these agri-fintech pieces together. We’re super agnostic and very collaborative in this space,” says Linbo, “while figuring out how to be more efficient working together and providing more value to the ag retailers and their customers.”
Read more at CropLife.
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