Oxbury Bank – the UK’s first and only AgTech bank – has completed an additional funding round that will support its impressive growth in funding British farmers who are addressing the UK’s twin challenges of food security and climate change.
Oxbury has raised a further £20 million in equity from new and existing investors, including founder investors Frontier Agriculture and Hutchinsons Group as well as existing technology investors Hambro Perks and Grosvenor Food & AgTech.
Completion of the round brings total capital raised by Oxbury to £68 million. The bank continues to raise capital from the market to support the bank’s substantial growth in lending to the British farming and food industry and leveraging the full capabilities of the bank’s proprietary Oxbury Earth AgTech banking platform.
Since first opening its doors to lending in February 2021, Oxbury has had a rapid impact on the funding available across Britain’s farming and food supply chain.
In its first 15 months, Oxbury has completed over £200 million in loan facilities to farm businesses – with more than £150 million in additional committed lending offers in the process of completion which will see the bank reach profitability in record time for a new bank. Oxbury’s strong performance since launch means it is forecast to breakeven by the end of 2022.
The bank has a target to lend £1 billion to farming and food businesses by 2024, at least 50% of which will be to fund the transition to climate-positive production.
Oxbury’s unique and proprietary AgTech banking platform – Oxbury Earth – is also powering a new range of unique data solutions for Oxbury’s farming and supply chain customers enabling them to gain powerful new data insights to improve sustainability, provenance and productivity performance across their businesses.
James Farrar, Oxbury’s co-founder and CEO said, “For decades the country’s banks have been reducing critical working capital to farm businesses and removing specialist agriculture expertise. Oxbury offers a completely different vision for how a finance company can support the UK’s critical farming and food ecosystem with both short and long term financing to meet the pressures of today and tomorrow.
“Oxbury is the UK’s first and only AgTech bank and we’ve been thrilled by customers’ reaction to our arrival in the farming and food ecosystem since we launched. This additional funding gives us huge confidence in our ability to grow the bank and reach our ambitious lending targets.
“With the power of our new AgTech banking platform, Oxbury Earth, combined with our decades of finance and agricultural experience, we’ve identified a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way farming, food businesses and the rural economy are supported by their bank to support ongoing food security and the natural environment.”
Tom Bradley, Partner at Hambro Perks said: “We are delighted to continue supporting Oxbury Bank, which has established a successful business model and unique value proposition.
“At Hambro Perks, we have experience investing in businesses driven by financial technology and we recognise the strength of Oxbury as a pioneering AgTech business with impressive fintech capabilities. Oxbury plays a critical role in helping the UK thrive by supporting the agricultural sector through innovation.
Anthony James, Managing Partner, Grosvenor Food & AgTech, said: “Grosvenor’s investment strengthens our support in Oxbury, helping to grow its operation, raise capital and increase its lending power, which will enable more British farming and supply chain businesses to enhance their productivity and sustainability.
“Oxbury has made an immediate impact to UK agriculture, substantiated by its impressive lending figures and ambitious future targets, demonstrating that it is uniquely placed to support British farming through its innovative banking products and fintech solutions.”