RePlant Capital
Today, farmers take home only 8 cents for every dollar of food they produce. The majority fail to break even each year, and there is $426B of farmer debt. Our farm economy is upside down. We have an extractive food system leaning on extractive capital structures. U.S. farmers face severe financial hardship and soil depletion after decades of an industrialized, agrochemical model. It’s becoming increasingly obvious our food system needs restructuring, but you can not fix a broken food system with a broken financial system.
What is the Solution?
rePlant improves farmer profitability and environmental outcomes through financing the transition of farmland to regenerative and organic agriculture. Alongside farmers, agronomists, and food companies, rePlant is building a new financial system to recognize and scale an agricultural philosophy that provides important ecosystem services for the climate.
How this looks like concretely: RePlant Capital develops financing options for farmers who are willing and ready to transition to regenerative and organic agriculture. The firm connects farmers to technical assistance from agronomists, soil conservationists, NGOs, and other technical experts, while at the same time deploying capital to accelerate the transition. The financing terms are tied to the health of the soil.
Plants are crucial to achieve sustainable biomanufacturing, as they provide quantities of product created in less than four weeks. The proteins can be offered at a reduced cost, using less water and energy, and fully compostable. In today’s economy, it is difficult to find animal-free alternatives in products such as clothing and medicines, many of which today are made with animal-based reagents. Tiamat’s plants define a new standard in safety and sustainability, providing growth factors, cytokines, enzymes, and high-value and animal-free proteins.
What EQT Foundation loves about rePlant Capital
EQT Foundation supports RePlant’s thesis that solving the climate crisis requires systemic change at scale. RePlant’s business model creates an important intermediary in the agricultural industry, enabling farmers to bring the environment into focus by providing them with the necessary capital to do so. We are huge fans of innovative financing solutions that are linked to the impact they are aiming to create, and linking soil quality to financial solutions aiming to enhance soil quality feels like a natural step towards improving soil conditions.
Besides seeing this as a huge opportunity for an ecological agricultural transition, RePlant’s offering also proposes an equitable solution to smallholder farmers, making them independent of costly financing packages and enabling them to combine the environment’s well-being with their own financial one.
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