Nongfenqi

The firm's core business revolves around providing financial services designed to facilitate modern agriculture. Nongfenqi offers installment payment plans for large farming groups and communes to purchase agricultural equipment, materials, and pay for land transfer fees. This approach addresses the financial hurdles faced by farmers, such as the high cost and difficulty of acquiring agricultural supplies and machinery. The company operates in a substantial market, with agricultural machinery and production materials representing a multi-trillion yuan industry in China. By purchasing in bulk from large agricultural producers and delivering directly to large-scale farming households, Nongfenqi can often provide these goods at a lower cost than traditional channels. Its revenue model appears to be based on earning the price difference in these transactions, and it has offered interest-free installment plans for items like pesticides and fertilizers.

A significant component of Nongfenqi's strategy is its proprietary credit assessment system. Recognizing the lack of credit data in rural areas, which acts as a barrier to traditional financing, the company developed a system tailored to agricultural scenarios. The process involves an offline, self-managing team that collects information on-site, including personal, family, and farm management details. This data is then manually entered and analyzed through a background credit information system to evaluate the risks associated with providing financial services and supplies to farmers. By early 2018, the company had served nearly 500,000 growers and had provided close to 2 billion yuan in financial services.

Nongfenqi has attracted considerable investment from prominent venture capital firms. Its funding history includes multiple rounds, culminating in a Series C financing in April 2018 led by Yi Capital, with participation from existing investors like BAI (Bertelsmann Asia Investments), ShunWei Capital, and Source Code Capital. This capital was intended to further tap into the agricultural market, expand its operational advantages, and focus on incorporating more technology into its agricultural machinery and investment services. Keywords: agricultural finance, AgTech, FinTech, supply chain finance, rural credit, farm equipment financing, agricultural materials, installment payments, credit assessment, China agriculture, Nanjing startup, ZHOU Jian, large-scale farming, crop production services, agricultural technology, venture capital, BAI, ShunWei Capital, Source Code Capital, Yi Capital