Page 24 - bneMag Oct23

24 I Companies & Markets bne October 2023
Croatian firms launch NFT 'crypto pigs' platform to boost pork industry
Aida Kadyrzhanova in Astana
Three Croatian firms have launched the GoAgro platform, offering investors the opportunity to buy "crypto pigs" in the form of NFTs, reported Poslovni Dnevnik.
Priced at €250 each, equivalent to 100 kilograms of pork meat, a total of 240,000 Pig NFTs are to be issued, maturing over 900 days.
After this period, investors can choose to reinvest, sell, or convert their Pig NFTs into 107.5 kilograms of real pork meat. The proceeds will be used to kickstart pig farming on two Agroporc-owned farms.
Project aims to reverse the decline in pig farming in Croatia. / Peggychoucair via Pixabay
Kresimir Kuterovac, Agroporc's director, said the project's goal is to directly connect farmers and consumers, addressing the decline in pig farming, especially in Croatia, where recent outbreaks of African swine fever have severely affected production.
Croatia is facing a significant shortfall in meeting its domestic pork meat demand, currently able to fulfill only 40% of it through local production.
Moldovan P2P lending platform Fagura
to expand to Romania
bne IntelliNews
Moldova’s fintech Fagura, a financing marketplace based on P2P principles, has received regulatory approval to operate on the Romanian market from the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).
In the short term, the company will develop a marketplace based on P2P lending technology, where people looking for loans at a lower interest rate than the financial market meet with investors interested in a more consistent return than bank deposits.
Launched in 2019 in Moldova, Fagura has already intermediated loans in the amount of €2.5mn, with maturities of up to three years.
The average maturity of the loans intermediated was 23 months and the average interest rate was 22.8%. The average size of a loan was €1,672.
The investors active on Fagura platform are mainly from Europe (particularly Moldova, Germany and the UK) but also Southeast Asia.
www.bne.eu
“Expanding into Romania represents a significant phase in Fagura’s journey. This strategic move is poised to bring several advantages: diversification of the client base, a steep increase in the number of potential investors and borrowers, and, last but not least, our first step into the European Union arena.
It’s a new, exciting, but challenging territory. We are also preparing to officially launch the project in the Romanian market within the next two months, further extending our reach and impact," said Tudor Darie, CEO of Fagura.
The platform fagura.ro will offer an online financing option tailored for small and micro Romanian companies, at the same time allowing investors to choose the companies
to invest in based on the detailed business plans made available, with options to use Auto-Invest functionality
or Secondary Market.