The Brazilian fintech Agrolend has closed a $28M Series B round led by Lightrock.

Founded by brothers Alan and Andre Glezer in 2021, Agrolend offers to farmers easy, fast, and bureaucracy-free credit to buy agribusiness inputs such as seeds and fertilizers. Loans are formalized in a 100% digital manner using the grower’s Whatsapp, and the capital becoming available in less than a week. Agrolend has a vast network of more than 100 partners with the credit being offered directly at the point of sale with a retailer.

The round was led by Lightrock and saw participation from new investors Yara Growth Ventures, the investment team at crop nutrition firm Yara, and Mago Capital, a Sao Paulo-based venture investor.

Existing investors including Valor Capital, Continental Grain Company, SP Ventures, Provence Capital and Barn Invest also took part in the raise.

Agrolend CEO and co-founder Andre Glezer says the new funds will help the firm “transform the experience of SME farmers in Brazil for the better”.

The round will enable Agrolend to expand its credit offering to more than 10,000 small-to-medium-sized farms across Brazil, as the firm looks to increase its loan book to around $385 million (BRL 2 billion) for the 2023/24 crop season.

Agrolend says its loan book is expected to reach around $48 million (BRL 250 million) by the end of 2022, which represents nearly ten-fold growth when compared to the company’s loan book value at the end of 2021.

The firm operates through partnerships with industries and distributors of agriculture equipment, giving farmers access to credit through a mobile-first platform.