Produce Pay
Mobile-Ready Online Marketplace for Farmers
Design Development Ideation Maintenance
A mobile-ready online marketplace for farmers with immediate access to liquidity and financing where farmers and distributors can connect, handle shipments and manage the financing for the shipments.
Fresh produce is a necessary resource that keeps the world going. More than often, after growing and shipping their product, the hardworking farmers have to wait for the cash return which can take up to 30-45 days. This waiting period can have significant effects on the productivity of the next growing cycle. In 2014, Produce Pay was founded; it was designed as a financial solution for farmers and distributors by enhancing productivity extensively.
Produce Pay is an online marketplace where farmers and distributors can securely trade with a trusted counterparty. Through Produce Pay, farmers are provided with immediate access to liquidity and financing for enhanced cash flow. To minimize wait times for growers and limitation of cash intake, Produce Pay designed a web-based portal where all of the financial management processes of a transaction could be streamlined and centralized. This portal allows farmers and distributors to connect, handle shipments and manage the financing.
When Produce Pay approached Virtual Force, a small team of our expert designers, developers, and project managers got straight to building the product. Over 5 months, we were able to create a web-based portal. Our role took us innovating in the ideation, concept, development, and design of Produce Pay. We created a comprehensive dashboard for the roles of farmers, distributors, and investors, and came up with a platform that connected farmers and distributors for regular cashouts that needed to take place.
Tech
- Ruby on Rails
- PHP
- AngularJS
- Twitter Bootstrap
- WordPress
- AJAX
- HTML5
- JavaScript
- SendGrid
- Wire Transfer
The features Virtual Force implemented include; investor dashboards, buyback guarantees, automated investments, statement downloads, and feedback on a P2P platform. As a result of our efforts, Produce Pay raised $77 million in equity and debt financing to further scale its business.
Challenges
Fresh produce farmers are the ones challenged the most by the limitation of cash intake. This limit can be debilitating and requires a step-up from contemporary financial management solutions. They grow their produce, ship out their product and have to wait for the cash to return. This typically takes a little more than a month. Their needs, however, require them to have instant cash at hand to grow the next cycle to remain productive. Produce Pay needed a web-based portal where all of the financial management processes could be streamlined and centralized. This included, but not limited to, a comprehensive dashboard, each for roles of investors, distributors and farmers. Furthermore, our development team had to come up with a connecting platform between distributors and farmers on priority as regular cashouts needed to take place between the two parties.
Solution
- Engagement Managers Analysis of Produce Pay’s Requirements and Expectations
- Insightful Information, Suggestion and Input from Produce Pay
- Innovative Approach by VF Technical Team
- A Web-based Portal with All Components of Lending Platform
- Comprehensive Dashboard for Investors, Farmers and Distributors
With our agile approach, Produce Pay has had immense success in the fintech and agriculture industries flowing around $1.5 billion worth of produce since its launch in 2015.
Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck states
Founder and CEO of Produce Pay
“Virtual Force undertook the very challenging task of building our payment platform from scratch, head on. We were faced with very tight time constraints, while working remotely and despite many challenges, VF managed to create an amazing end-product that far exceeded our expectations. The work ethic is superb, management impressive, and communication admirable. The VF team is flexible and can think on their feet when on a bind.”