Fagura

Idea

Introduction

Fagura was launched in 2019 in Moldova with the idea of helping borrowers overcome bureaucratic burdens and financial limitations when accessing a loan. The company created a platform to connect those borrowers with investors who were seeking better returns than those obtained from bank deposits. It deployed a proprietary credit scoring algorithm to facilitate the smooth flow of capital.

Today Fagura is a community of individuals and SMEs who borrow from and lend to each other. An ecosystem for alternative funding and investments where peers trust each other and grow together.

To further facilitate financial inclusion, our clients need to be able to send and receive money in real-time. They need to be able to spend and transfer cash as they please.

Fagura is therefore willing to expand its crowd lending operations to add transfers and payments. All of these in a single application. A true community digital bank for members to be able to borrow, invest and spend money instantly.

Substantial accomplishments to date

May 2019 - the crowd lending platform goes live in Moldova

Dec 2020 - just under 100,000 unique visitors on our platform

May 2021 - Fagura is the first company with the core of its business in Moldova to raise money on Seedrs

Dec 2021 - €1 million worth of loans intermediated on the platform

Feb 2022 - Fagura wins the scaleup cohort of the InnovX by BCR accelerator

May 2022 - the secondary market module is launched (allowing investors to transact loans among each other)

Jun 2022 - the Android and iOS mobile apps are launched for investors

Jul 2022 - Fagura applied for a license to become a European crowdfunding platform and get authorised by the Financial Supervision Authority in Romania

Aug 2022 - SME lending is launched in Moldova (deploying the proprietary scoring4business algorithm)

Sep 2022 - partnership with Chemonics International - implemented Future Technologies Activity in Moldova, funded by USAID and Sweden to boost our operations in capital distribution to local SMEs

The awards obtained represent additional validation and confidence in what we do.

Monetisation strategy

The main crowdfunding revenue streams today:

3% of the borrowed amount is charged at origination of the loan (borrowers receive their loan minus the retained commission);
2% is the amount paid by investors for having their investment serviced (investors get a capital repayment on each of their investment minus the retained commission);
1% is the fee paid by investors when selling their investments on the secondary market

A breakdown of the Community Digital Bank revenue streams (from mid 2023) and their respective shares of the total segment revenue*:

- fees for European and cross border transfers (35%)
- fees for Euro and non-Euro payments (30%);
- fees for cash withdrawals in both Euro and non-Euro countries (30%);
- subscriptions (5%).

*The weights assigned to each business segment are forecasted for the first year of activity. They will change thereafter and reflect the geographical expansion and customer breakdown at Fagura.

Use of proceeds

The focus of Fagura’s activity moving forward is product & technology enhancement, client acquisition and business scaling in both the Romanian speaking countries and beyond.

We aim to have a functional community digital bank app by the end of 2023. The app is planned to include both the crowd funding platform and the aforementioned cash operations (transfers, payments and virtual cards). The latter will require integrations with Electronic Money Institutions and new experienced hires in the company (mainly in the IT department). The general use of proceeds will be within the following structure:

40% - product & technology

30% - marketing and sales

30% - headcount (IT, commercial, finance, compliance/AML)