Venture Investment Partners Bangladesh (VIPB), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) and LightCastle Partners have signed an agreement with Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh (BFP-B) and formed a consortium to develop a Smart Capital Investment Program to create Farmers’ Hubs, provide business development support via accelerator programs and risk capital. This news details by DHS Ventures & Holdings.
The initiative will help Ag-MSEs become fully investable growth businesses. The program estimates value chain development of 10,000+ small holder farmers and 60+ MSEs over a period of two years. The program will have four cycles in which every cycle will consist of a Roadshow, Boot camp, Accelerator Program and Demo Day.
The first phase of the event was a 2-day Roadshow held on 29 July in villages in the Joldhaka sub-district of Rangpur. Where approximately 350 farmers and ag-entrepreneurs participated.
After much preparation; on the 1st of August, “Smart Investment Boot Camp” was held by LightCastle, in association with BFP-B, Syngenta Foundation and VIPB at RDRS Guest House in Rangpur. The event saw more than 80 farmers come with a noticeable
enthusiasm to learn. Discussions about the ways to increase the productivity, division of capital, provision of loans and tactics which would help raise income; were the prime areas the farmers looked forward to.
Syngenta Foundation along with the LightCastle, BFPB and VIPB, held key one-on-one interviews with the participants to help shape their business models into a more maintainable and fruitful one. The interview panel short listed 25 Ag-entrepreneurs for the 45 days accelerator program.
The top 25, who were invited to partake in the accelerator program held on the 26 September, 2018 at BRAC Learning Center, Rangpur. The daylong event was inaugurated by Mr. Bijon Islam, CEO of LightCastle where he welcomed the participants and gave a short speech on the importance of such an impact investment program.