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Verqor ImpactReport2023
Verqor ImpactReport2023
REPORT
2023
MARCH 2024
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
ABOUT US 3
2 Our Presence 7
OUR COMMITMENT
3 Priority SDGs 8
Impact Metrics 9
OUR PROCESS
4 Impact Data Collection 12
Impact Results 13
WINS
5 Case Study 16
Alliances 18
6 RISKS 22
7 WHAT’S NEXT 23
About The Report
Verqor was founded in 2018 as an impact-oriented organization. As such, this year we’re publishing
our second impact report, where we proudly share our progress and commit to keep up the good
work: improve Mexican growers’ livelihoods.
This document is a testament to our ongoing commitment and our focus on transparency within the
industry, but none of it would be possible without the incredible support of our investors, mentors,
and of course, our growers – thank you all!
About Us
We are a fintech company dedicated to revolutionizing agricultural financing in Mexico. Driven by a
culture of deep commitment and hands-on involvement, our core mission is to provide
marginalized growers with an innovative business model that achieves large-scale positive
impact. To achieve this, we make formal financial solutions accessible to all growers, enabling them
to secure the credit they need to thrive. With Verqor, growers can obtain tailored loans and purchase
essential agri-inputs for optimal crop growth. Additionally, we provide data and traceability
information through our platform, bringing transparency into a historically un-digitized sector.
Lenders relying on traditional financial data such as financial statements and credit scores.
Growers may have never had credit or their income may not reflected on their financial
statements (agriculture is largely an unbanked sector).
A misunderstanding of agricultural risks. Traditional lenders are not taking into account
climate change, price fluctuations, or biological hazards, which create a dynamic risk
environment that is not present in other markets. These factors make it difficult to predict future
farm performance and require industry experts to work hand in hand with finance specialists to
understand them.
Bottomline, the reality of Mexican growers operating primarily on cash creates a data gap that
makes them less appealing to traditional banks when compared to established businesses with
readily available financial records.
This lack of adequate financing can lead to several negative consequences for growers, including:
Increased financial vulnerability. Growers may be more susceptible to financial hardship due
to unexpected events like natural disasters or market downturns.
Limited access to innovation. Without access to capital, growers may be unable to adopt new
technologies or practices they need to improve their efficiency and profitability, as well as to
reduce their carbon foorprint.
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Tripartite Focus
By tracking the journey of agricultural products from farm to consumer (including the use of ag-
inputs and practices), traceability enhances transparency and accountability.
This transparency provides growers with insights into resource usage, production practices, and
environmental impact. Armed with this information, growers make informed decisions to
optimize their processes. Additionally, big food companies can take action and support growers
throughout this transition, since traceability facilitates the recognition of sustainable farming
practices, helping growers and buyers showcase their commitment to environmentally friendly
methods. This recognition opens doors to market access and partnerships. Ultimately, the
integration of traceability in the food supply chain fosters a more resilient and environmentally
responsible agricultural sector.
Learn more about our ESG focus with our Theory of Change. 5
Connection across the sector
These connections enable growers to collaborate with agricultural experts, accessing valuable
insights, guidance, and best practices for sustainable farming. Through direct communication
with buyers committed to ethical and sustainable sourcing, growers can align their practices
with market demands, enhancing their economic prospects. This interconnected approach
fosters a dynamic agricultural ecosystem, where growers thrive by implementing sustainable
methods and meeting the expectations of environmentally conscious consumers and
businesses.
Fostering connections within the food supply chain not only benefits growers but also makes
them visible in the food industry, while providing a strategic advantage for buyers aiming to
meet sustainability goals. By establishing direct relationships with growers, buyers can
incentivize and collaborate with them to incorporate specific sustainable practices aligned with
their sustainability-focused objectives. These connections enable buyers to influence the
adoption of eco-friendly methods, responsible sourcing, and adherence to sustainability
standards. In return, growers may receive incentives such as preferential contracts, premium
pricing, or long-term partnerships.
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OUR PRESENCE
Verqor’s digital credit relies on providing access to financial resources for growers all across
Mexico. By offering a flexible and tailored approach to agricultural financing, and with our
innovative digital platform, Verqor ensures that growers can access credit anywhere, bridging the
gap between financial institutions and remote farming communities: our service is not bound by
geographical constraints.
Verqor's adaptability extends beyond location, as its platform is designed to cater to the unique
needs of various crops, providing customized credit solutions that align with the specific
requirements of each agricultural endeavor. This inclusive and personalized approach not only
democratizes access to credit for growers but also contributes to the overall advancement of
sustainable agriculture throughout Mexico. By the end of 2023, we had provided productive
credits in 16 out of 32 states of the country and financed 17 crops!
As our business grows, we look forward to expanding into more states and crops, reaching
into every corner and crop in Mexico.
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Our Commitment
We recognize the importance of aligning Verqor’s values with international goals, which is why we
have identified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)to which Verqor’s impact contributes
the most. We hope this will make it easier for our stakeholders to compare Verqor’s progress with
other relevant players in the agricultural sector.
PRIORITY SDGs
1.4
“Ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal
rights to economic resources, as well as access to appropriate new technology and
financial services, including microfinance.”
1.5
“Build the resilience of those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure to
climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks
and disasters.”
2.1
“Ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and the people in vulnerable
situations, to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round.”
2.3
“Double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in
particular women, indigenous peoples, and family farmers through productive resources
and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value
addition.”
13.1
“Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural
disasters in all countries.”
13.3
Improve education, awareness-raising, and human capacity on climate change
mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning.”
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3 Percentage (%) of growers with improved digital literacy
2
NCRS. nd. Soil health. Recovered from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/conservation-basics/natural-resource-concerns/soils/soil-health
3
This include the elimination of fees, and/or a reduction in their interest rates. 10
5 Percentage (%) of growers with improved climate resiliency
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Type Metric Data source
Our Process
IMPACT DATA COLLECTION
In our effort to increase transparency and replicability of results across the sector, this section
explains the process we follow to gather the data on our priority impact metrics. We hope this
information will help stakeholders contextualize our results, identify potential biases, and help
Verqor improve future assessments.
Verqor credit process: Our credit process includes the internal structure followed to provide a
credit, such as the grower’s registration on our website, documentation upload, credit risk
assessment, credit allocation, and post-credit satisfaction survey.
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IMPACT RESULTS
Explore our 2023 wins! This section delves into our results, focusing on our priority impact metrics
and including additional valuable data insights.
Priority metrics
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IMPACT RESULTS
Conservation tillage
Conservation tillage
Crop rotation (33%)
Crop rotation
(52%)
Biodigestors Living
Living fences
fences (10%)
Biodigesters (5%)
Of the 48% of growers implementing regenerative practices, crop rotation was the most
commonly implemented (52%).
Crop rotation is an agricultural practice of planting different crops in the same area in different
seasons. It offers several advantages over planting the same crop year after year (monoculture),
such as 4 :
Improved soil fertility: Different crops have different nutrient requirements; by rotating them,
growers avoid depleting the soil of essential nutrients.
Reduction in pest and disease problems: Monoculture reduces biodiversity, weakens the
ecosystem and creates an abundant food source for pests and diseases that have evolved to
exploit the crop’s specific weaknesses.
Improved soil structure: Different crops have different root structures; some plants have deep
roots that help break up compacted soil and improve drainage (water filtration), and other
plants have shallow roots that help hold soil particles together and prevent erosion.
4
Rodale Insitute. nd. Crop rotations. Recovered from https://rodaleinstitute.org/why-organic/organic-farming-practices/crop-rotations/ 14
Increased water use efficiency: Crop rotation improves the soil’s ability to hold water, this
can reduce the need for irrigation and improve crop yields during dry periods.
Reduced reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides: Since soil health and fertility are
improved, the need for synthetics is reduced, protecting the environment and helping
growers save money!
These results encourage us to keep imrpoving our holistic solution to help our growers implement
RegAg practices in their fields.
Climate resiliency
This year, we experienced an increase in climate-related losses within our portfolio, demonstrating
the heightened need for protection against climate events. Fortunately, Verqor’s product was
designed with these challenges in mind, and monitoring on behalf of our dedicated Customer
Experience (CX) team and via satelite images, allows us to provide ongoing support and assist
clients in unblocking insurance claims when needed.
A snapshot of the reality climate change represents, and our consequent impact:
84%
8% 8%
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Wins
We are happy to share some of the stories and experiences that keep us motivated here at Verqor. In
this section, you’ll learn more about one of our growers and the initiatives we are constantly
participating in to improve!
CASE STUDY
Jessica is a chili pepper grower from Sinaloa with 20 years of experience. All this time, she had been
working alongside her husband, Heriberto. Despite her many years of experience, Jessica’s husband
was always the one in charge of their business’ finances and decision-making, which is very
customary across the Mexican agricultural landscape. Per his decision, they partnered with a family
member to form a Rural Productive Society to commercialize their crops to local buyers.
Unfortunately, after some time, Heriberto and his business partner had personal differences that
affected their business relationship and caused them to underperform. As a result, they lost all their
clients and finally decided to part ways. Jessica’s livelihood was threatened, and so was her
legacy as a female grower. She was extremely worried and knew she had to do something.
She decided to take charge of the family business. She built a network of 25 local growers to
support each other, share best practices, and learn from their experiences. This allowed her to
improve negotiation terms with input suppliers, and buyers. Financing was becoming the issue now.
having no credit history, since everything was in her husband’s name - even though she did plenty
of the work. She was being rejected by several lenders, so logically she became hopeless as it was
a tricky predicament: she had never had a credit to her name, and she couldn’t get one because of
that exact reason. Fortunately, Jessica heard about Verqor from a business partner and registered
on our website.
Thanks to our 100% ag-centered risk analysis, we saw Jessica’s productive potential and provided
her with her first formal productive credit. Furthermore, we provided her with the agility she
required to get her business up and running again, the business that her family depended on. In
Jessica’s words:
“With Verqor I don’t have to drive to an office, I can do the whole process
from my phone and allocate that time to my business.
The fact that I get to pay back the credit until I have sold my crops helps our
cash flow and allows us to keep our mind focused on working the land.”
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is sadly very common in Mexico: due to customs, she had no credit history, which made it very
difficult for her to get productive credit to her name.
Our personalized attention made all the difference and embedding agricultural insurance in our
product also meant an increase in her resilience against extreme climate events, which are only
becoming more common due to climate change.
Her husband led the business. Jessica leads her own business.
She had no credit history of her own. She is building her credit history.
She had lost all her buyers. Within her first two cycles with Verqor,
Her production included only a lot of 3 she increased her production tenfold!
hectares. (From 3 to 30 hectares)
These differences come to show the importance of offering financial products tailored to growers’
needs and cash flows.
At Verqor, it is a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with growers such as Jessica; we love to be a part
of the cultural change that the Mexican agricultural sector is undergoing, supporting female
producers who take control of their finances and thrive in the process.
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ALLIANCES
TO MULTIPLY IMPACT IN THE INDUSTRY
As part of our efforts to improve, we are always actively looking for opportunities to collaborate with
other players in the agri-food system. We want to share two of the programs we participated in
during 2023, which helped us gain an even better understanding of the sector and offer more
relevant solutions through our financial product.
Innovatech was a program developed by the German Sparkassenstiftung and financed by the IFAD
which had the aim of helping smallholder farmers in Latin America recover from the impacts caused
by the COVID-19 pandemic. They set out to do this by connecting producers with technology
companies that might provide them with better access to financial services and markets.
We knew our product could help tackle the lack of access to fair and transparent value chains while
increasing fintech availability to growers were all challenges we had previously identified in the
Mexican agricultural sector.
Gaining entry into the Innovatech program proved to be a formidable challenge, as the application
process was highly competitive. The rigorous selection criteria demanded innovation, viability, and
a strong potential for impact, making the competition intense. However, overcoming these hurdles
was exceptionally rewarding, as it granted us the opportunity to participate alongside startups from
across Latin America. This dynamic cross-section of entrepreneurial endeavors provided us with
invaluable insights into the diverse challenges faced by the sector throughout the region. Engaging
with fellow participants allowed us to exchange perspectives, share experiences, and foster a
collaborative environment that transcended geographical boundaries. The Innovatech program not
only elevated our startup to new heights but also enriched our understanding of the broader
landscape, fostering a network of innovation that extends beyond our immediate surroundings.
The program began in October 2022 and concluded in August 2023. During this time, the team at
Innovatech helped us connect with growers in need of financing for their land. By August 2023,
Verqor had given financing to 20 grower collectives, made up of 250 individual growers!
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Of the impacted growers:
19% were women; and,
52% were youths
This is important because agriculture in Mexico is still dominated by middle-aged to senior men, as
such, women and young people are priority groups if we want to create a more equitable ag sector.
Verqor’s product appeals to these populations for a variety of reasons.
Women in rural areas traditionally depend on male family members for their livelihoods, which
means they might not have a credit history or a way to begin a business of their own. As seen with
Jessica’s case study, our flexible credit risk analysis allows them to have access to their first formal
financing which is a catalytic change to their independence.
As for youths, making agriculture an appealing occupation is a challenge. For most smallholder
growers, the agricultural sector still offers only traditional brick-and-mortar solutions. However,
young people are looking for innovative and tech-focused solutions to their problems, which also
gives them an incentive to work in agriculture and perceive it as a sector with growing opportunities.
This is why Verqor’s flexible, digital process fits their needs so well.
We look forward to participating in more programs such as Innovatech, where NGOs, government
entities, and the private sector come together to tackle complex problems by sharing our strenghs
and expertise with each other.
Isabel (Head of ESG) and Hugo (CEO) were present at Innovatech’s Demo Day in Panama City
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our project in May of 2025, once the 2024-2025 coffee beans have been collected and the growers
have sold them to Nestle.
In August 2023, Verqor was chosen to participate in the re generación program by Nestlé Mexico in
collaboration with the Yield Lab LATAM. Its objective is to develop pilot projects with startups and
scaleups that impact and contribute to the care and preservation of the planet for people today
and tomorrow.
Verqor’s value proposition is to offer flexible and tailored credit to Nestle’s smallholder suppliers.
For this pilot project, we are working with a collective of coffee growers in southeastern Mexico to
provide a financial product that supports them in technifying their operations. We estimate that the
program will conclude in May of 2025, once the 2024-2025 coffee beans have been collected and
the growers have sold them to Nestlé. However, we’re certain the utility and impact of our platform
will position us as partners both of Nestlé and their growers, hopefully interacting with different
crops in the future.
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Our mission is to create a meaningful impact within Nestlé’s expansive food supply chain,
recognizing its status as the world's largest food company. Emphasizing the importance of
traceability, we aim to bring transparency and accountability to the intricate web of suppliers,
distributors, and producers involved in Nestle's operations.
Our focus on coffee presents a strategic avenue for transformation, considering its pivotal role and
the significant environmental and social impact associated with its production. Coffee growers,
typically small and fragmented, represent a key demographic within this supply chain, and our
product seeks to impact them to improve their livelihoods. By leveraging technology and
sustainable practices, we aim to not only enhance the quality and efficiency of Nestlé’s coffee
supply chain but also contribute to the well-being of these small-scale producers, fostering a more
equitable and sustainable approach to the coffee industry.
We are truly amazed by Nestlé's prominent role in the program and deeply appreciate their
commitment to embracing new solutions and fostering innovation. Nestlé's leadership position
offers a unique opportunity for us to collaborate and introduce transformative practices within their
expansive food supply chain. The willingness of Nestlé to explore innovative approaches aligns
seamlessly with our vision for creating positive change. This collaborative spirit allows us to
integrate cutting-edge technologies, such as traceability solutions, to enhance transparency and
sustainability throughout their supply chain.
We want to thank Nestlé for creating this type of initiative that not only offers growth opportunities
to startups, but also creates a space to exchange, learn, and give feedback to detect ways to
improve the agri-food sector.
Look forward to our 2024 impact report to learn about our progress with this project!
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Risks
Recognizing the impact on our entire ecosystem, we proactively identify risks that pose a threat to
our company and/or stakeholders. This enables us to develop mitigation plans and procedures so we
can effectively address them should they arise.
The climate crisis highlights the most pressing issues we face, which strengthens our commitment to
offering environmental solutions that benefit our clients and stakeholders alike.
We want to specially thank our investors SP Ventures, Mercy Corps Ventures, and Amplifica Capital
for providing us with the tools to conduct this risk assessment.
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What’s Next
MATERIALITY ASSESSMEMT
Verqor is currently conducting a comprehensive double materiality assessment to shape our
strategy with an ESG outlook and define our KPIs for the next two years of operation. This
assessment will critically examine how environmental, social, and governance factors impact our
company's operations and performance, as well as how Verqor’s business activities influence
society and the environment. By carefully analyzing this two-way relationship, we'll establish clear
sustainability priorities and ensure our actions create value for both the world around us and our
long-term success.
FOCUS ON WOMEN
Many women in agriculture lack access to financial products and services designed to meet their
needs. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), women’s
participation in the agricultural and livestock industry has decreased, from 19.7% in 2007 to 16%
in 2022. 4
Providing women with education and financial tools is a transformative strategy that not only uplifts
individual women but also catalyzes broader positive change within communities. Women gain
essential skills and knowledge, enabling them to facilitate economic independence. As women find
increased opportunities and support, their businesses flourish, contributing to the overall growth of
the agricultural sector. We aim to foster a more inclusive and equitable society. The ripple effect
extends to families and communities, as educated and financially empowered women become
catalysts for positive social change, ensuring sustainable development and prosperity in the
Mexican agricultural landscape.
To bridge this gap, we have decided to undertake a market study in 2024 to gain deeper insights
into the unique needs of female growers. This study will inform the development of tailored
financial tools, services, and products to empower women growers and help them achieve their full
potential leading the agricultural sector.
With sustainable development at the core of our mission, Verqor fully embraces these challenges.
We will relentlessly track and improve our progress, striving to create a business that leaves a
positive mark on society and helps address agriculture’s most pressing issues.
Contact
Please contact us for feedback, partnerships, or further information!
Isabel Rodríguez
Head of ESG - isabel@verqor.com
Celeste Ceballos
ESG Manager - celeste@verqor.com
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