Draft:WeGro Technologies Limited

• Comment: Sourced entirely with churnalism and WP:ORGTRIV. Signs of LLM usage as well. Sulfurboy (talk) 05:07, 3 August 2026 (UTC)

---

WeGro Technologies Limited

Type	Private limited company
Industry	Agricultural technology, Financial technology
Founded	2021; Dhaka, Bangladesh
Founders	Md Mahmudur Rahman, Md Alvi Rahman, John Buckley
Headquarters	Dhaka , Bangladesh
Area served	Bangladesh
Key people	Md Mahmudur Rahman (CEO); Md Alvi Rahman (chief administrative officer); John Buckley (strategic adviser)
Products	Agricultural investment platform; agricultural inputs
Website	www.wegro.global

WeGro Technologies Limited is an agricultural financial technology (agri-fintech) company based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Incorporated in 2021, the company operates a digital platform through which retail and institutional investors fund agricultural projects, and supplies smallholder farmers with agricultural inputs, advice and market access rather than cash loans. In 2024 the company was named one of three winners of the Global FinTech Hackcelerator, a competition organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

History

WeGro was founded by Md Mahmudur Rahman and Md Alvi Rahman, who met while working at the Bangladeshi food company Khaas Food, where they observed the difficulty smallholder farmers faced in obtaining credit and fair prices. Both had previously worked at corporations including the mobile network operator Robi, the conglomerate ACI and the consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser; Mahmudur Rahman also worked at British American Tobacco and the e-commerce company Sindabad.com. The company was formally incorporated in June 2021 and began with a group of 35 lead farmers.

In 2022, WeGro was selected as one of eight startups in the Bangladesh Springboard Programme of Youth Co:Lab, an initiative co-led by the United Nations Development Programme and the Citi Foundation. In October 2022 the company received a US$100,000 grant from the Impact Ready Matching Fund of Biniyog Briddhi, a programme run by Roots of Impact, the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and LightCastle Partners.

In March 2023, WeGro signed a memorandum of understanding with Making Markets Work for the Chars (M4C), a Swisscontact-implemented project, to extend financing into char (riverine island) areas of six northern districts: Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Jamalpur, Kurigram and Shariatpur. WeGro committed 10 million Bangladeshi taka to char entrepreneurs under the 16-month agreement. The same year, WeGro joined the eighth cohort of the Accelerating Asia accelerator programme in Singapore.

John Buckley, a financial-services executive who had previously held senior roles at Citadel, JPMorgan Chase and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, met the company through the Accelerating Asia programme and joined it in 2024; he is described as a co-founder and strategic adviser to the company.

Recognition and funding

In November 2024, WeGro was named one of three winners of the Global FinTech Hackcelerator, a competition organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore with the Global Finance & Technology Network, held under the theme "Improving Financial Health". The company received a prize of S$50,000. WeGro was selected from 77 proposals submitted from more than ten countries; the other winners were KaiOS Enable Tomorrow of China and Your Financial Wellness of Australia. Judges cited the company's use of open banking and peer-to-peer lending to deliver financial products for smallholder farmers within a single digital marketplace.

In 2023, WeGro received two awards at the Bangladesh Innovation Awards, for Best Startup Innovation and Best Innovation in Agriculture.

In July 2024, WeGro joined the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network for small-business finance managed by the International Finance Corporation.

Partnerships

WeGro has entered agreements with several banks and financial institutions in Bangladesh. In August 2023, Bangladesh Finance Limited signed a collaboration agreement with WeGro covering lending to small agricultural entrepreneurs and the sale of their produce. In May 2024, Dhaka Bank and Visa Inc. launched a co-branded debit card for WeGro's farmers at Satiantola in Bogura, in an initiative supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; the card allows farmers to access bank loans and buy seeds and fertiliser.

In May 2024, BRAC Bank signed an agreement with WeGro to provide financing to smallholder farmers. Reporting on the agreement stated that WeGro operated across 29 zones in Bangladesh and had connected institutional financiers with more than 5,000 farmers since 2021. In October 2024, Mutual Trust Bank signed a tripartite agreement with WeGro and the agribusiness company Syngenta, under which farmers are extended a credit line through the WeGro application to buy inputs from designated Syngenta outlets.

In May 2025, Prime Bank Investment Limited signed a memorandum of understanding with WeGro allowing investors on the WeGro platform to channel funds into regulated capital-market products. In October 2025, Community Bank Bangladesh signed a business collaboration agreement with WeGro covering agricultural services for farmers and agriculture-based micro, small and medium enterprises.

Business model

WeGro raises funds from retail investors and from partner banks, and uses them to purchase agricultural inputs, such as livestock, seeds and fertiliser, which are supplied to farmers instead of cash. The company provides training and agronomic advice, then buys the resulting crops or livestock and sells them to buyers, distributing the principal and profit back to investors and retaining a commission.

The scheme is structured on a Sharia-compliant profit-sharing basis, under which investors earn a return only if the farmer's harvest or livestock sale is profitable. As reported in 2023, the minimum investment was 20,000 taka, with advertised returns of 18 to 22 per cent, and investors could insure their investment against losses such as animal death or natural disaster. The company also offers a "grow now, pay later" arrangement for farmers, and allows farmers to store harvested crops with WeGro as security against inputs for the following season. As reported in 2025, the company offered three categories of insurance covering livestock mortality, weather events and crop yield, and loans arranged through its partner institutions carried interest rates of between 4 and 13 per cent, with disbursement reported within 48 hours.

WeGro has stated an intention to build a credit-scoring database for farmers, on the basis that the absence of transaction histories is a principal reason banks decline to lend to smallholders.

In 2023 the International Food Policy Research Institute, under the CGIAR Research Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets, began a randomised controlled trial evaluating WeGro's livestock fattening finance scheme, in which eligible farmers were randomly assigned to receive either WeGro's profit-sharing arrangement or a conventional microfinance loan. Under the scheme studied, WeGro accompanies the farmer to purchase cattle, the farmer covers the cost of raising the animal, and the profit on sale four to six months later is split, with the farmer receiving two-thirds. The evaluation examined the viability of the business model, the effect on household income, and women's control over resources.

Operations

A 2023 Swisscontact report described WeGro as an agri-fintech company providing smallholder farmers with access to finance, inputs and markets, with a focus on livestock and asset financing under a profit-sharing model, and stated that the company had invested 340 million taka and engaged more than 3,000 farmers by that point. In July 2023 the company reported a market portfolio of approximately 400 million taka. By June 2024 it was reported to operate in 29 zones and to have worked with over 5,000 farmers. Reported figures for 2025 distinguish between farmers reached across the company's services and those financed directly. In June 2025 the company was reported to have supported about 12,000 farmers across more than 40 upazilas, having disbursed a cumulative US$12.2 million, of which US$7.8 million had been repaid. In August 2025 it was reported to have financed about 8,000 farmers with 800 million taka, to hold records on approximately 20,000 registered farmers, and to employ around 110 people; the company also buys paddy, maize, potatoes and jute from farmers in 19 districts and supplies them to corporate buyers.

See also

• Agricultural finance
• Financial inclusion
• Islamic banking and finance