InSoil, a European climate finance firm that channels institutional money into regenerative agriculture, has landed a €120m senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street Capital.
The commitment, provided by private capital asset manager Pollen Street, ranks among the biggest private credit deals ever struck for sustainable agriculture lending on the continent.
The capital will allow InSoil to grow its loan book and extend more mid-term debt to agricultural SMEs shifting towards sustainable methods such as no-till cultivation, cover cropping, diversified crop rotation and cutting back on synthetic fertilisers.
A guarantee from the European Investment Fund (EIF), issued under the InvestEU programme, sits behind the underlying loans. InvestEU is mobilising a minimum of €372bn in additional investment towards EU policy goals.
The deal targets a corner of the European credit market that mainstream banks have long neglected, with the European Investment Bank putting the annual SME financing shortfall at €62bn.
Founded in 2020, InSoil has supported over 3,500 agricultural SMEs across Europe in their move to sustainable farming. The firm has also gathered more than 15,000 soil samples from participating farms, creating one of the region's biggest proprietary soil carbon datasets, which informs both its credit decisions and climate measurement work.
InSoil pairs its own underwriting models with verifiable climate outcomes, including issuing soil carbon credits under the Verified Carbon Standard, and is working towards a long-term goal of removing one gigaton of CO2 emissions through agricultural finance.
InSoil CEO and founder Laimonas Noreika said, 'European agriculture is entering a new investment cycle.
'Farmers need capital to modernise equipment, improve soil health and build more resilient businesses, but specialised financing has been scarce. This facility lets us meet that demand at scale, and shows that sustainable agriculture has become an investable asset class for institutional capital.'
Pollen Street investment director Paul Varty said, 'InSoil has built a genuinely differentiated position in European agricultural finance, combining deep relationships, rigorous credit underwriting and a strong track record. Backed by the EIF guarantee, the facility offers compelling structural protection.'