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Oxbury Bank – Britain’s first and only AgTech bank – announces major new funding, with £500 million of lending completed or in progress towards its first £1 billion  milestone

£20m funding round supported by current investors including Frontier Agriculture,  Grosvenor Food &amp; Agtech, Hambro Perks and Hutchinsons 

Chester, 5 July 2022 

Oxbury Bank – the UK’s first and only AgTech bank – has completed an additional funding  round to invest in the development of its Oxbury Earth core banking platform and that will  support its impressive growth in funding British farmers who are addressing the UK’s twin  challenges of food security and climate change. 

Oxbury has raised a further £20 million in equity from new and existing investors,  including founder investors Frontier Agriculture and Hutchinsons Group as well as existing  technology investors Hambro Perks and Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech. 

Completion of the round brings total capital raised by Oxbury to £68 million. The bank  continues to raise capital from the market to support the bank’s substantial growth in  lending to the British farming and food industry and leveraging the full capabilities of the  bank’s proprietary Oxbury Earth AgTech banking platform. 

Since first opening its doors to lending in February 2021, Oxbury has had a rapid impact  on the funding available across Britain’s farming and food supply chain.  

In its first 15 months, Oxbury has already disrupted the incumbent banks and converting  the initial £500m of business will help its customers invest in the future of their farms,  support them in short term cashflow funding and in turn unlock their planned growth and  investment in climate-positive projects. Oxbury’s strong performance since launch means  it is forecast to breakeven by the end of 2022. 

Oxbury’s unique and proprietary AgTech banking platform – Oxbury Earth – is also  powering a new range of unique data solutions for Oxbury’s farming and supply chain customers. Oxbury is enabling its customers to gain powerful new data insights to improve  sustainability, provenance and productivity performance across their businesses as well re establishing a proper on-farm individual relationship management model for all farmers. 
James Farrar, Oxbury’s co-founder and CEO said, 

<blockquote>“For decades farmers have had a very  limited choice between very similar incumbent banks and we appreciate how many  farmers now want to be part of Oxbury. They are critical to food production and we  support them at a very practical level with a team grounded in the sector.

“This latest capital round makes it very clear that investors also see the benefit of  combining the best people with the technology to be quick and nimble while reflecting  our customers’ needs. 

“Oxbury is the UK’s first and only AgTech bank and we’ve been thrilled by customers’  reaction to our arrival in the farming and food ecosystem since we launched. This  additional funding gives us huge confidence in our ability to grow both the bank and  our new AgTech banking platform, Oxbury Earth.”

</blockquote>
Tom Bradley, Partner at Hambro Perks said: 

<blockquote>“We are delighted to continue supporting  Oxbury Bank, which has established a successful business model and unique value  proposition.  

“At Hambro Perks, we have experience investing in businesses driven by financial  technology and we recognise the strength of Oxbury as a pioneering AgTech business  with impressive fintech capabilities. Oxbury plays a critical role in helping the UK thrive by  supporting the agricultural sector through innovation.” 

Anthony James, Managing Partner, Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech, said: “Grosvenor’s  investment confirms our ongoing support for Oxbury, helping to grow its operation, raise  capital and increase its lending power, which will enable more British farming and supply  chain businesses to enhance their productivity and sustainability. 

“Oxbury has made an immediate impact to UK agriculture, substantiated by its impressive  lending figures and ambitious future targets, demonstrating that it is uniquely placed to  support British farming through its innovative banking products and fintech solutions.” </blockquote>

Media Enquiries: 

Oxbury Bank: Tim Coates, Co-Founder, Chief Customer Officer: press@oxbury.com Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech: paul.mannion@grosvenor.com 

Hambro Perks: Immy.Ransom@fticonsulting.com 

About Oxbury Bank  

Oxbury is the UK’s first and only AgTech bank, sitting at the heart of the technology  revolution sweeping British farming. 

British farming and food is going through a period of radical transformation, and farm  businesses require more tailored finance, technology and data solutions to help them  make the generational shifts required to improve sustainability, provenance and  production standards across the farming and food supply chain. 

For decades banks have been reducing critical working capital to farm businesses and  removing specialist agriculture expertise.  

Oxbury was founded with a completely fresh vision for how a finance company can  support the UK’s critical farming and food ecosystem. 

With a proprietary fintech platform combined with our decades of banking and farming  experience, Oxbury offers more tailored, more flexible and more reliable finance along  with a unique data solutions that helps farmers deliver improved sustainability,  provenance and productivity across the farming and food supply chain. 

Oxbury Bank Plc is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the  Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services  Register number: 834822). 

For more information about Oxbury, visit: <a style="color: #008000;" href="http://www.oxbury.com">www.oxbury.com</a>

About Frontier Agriculture 

Frontier Agriculture is the UK's leading crop production and grain marketing business,  recognised for its close customer relationships with farmers and grain consumers and its  successful management of the arable supply chain. 

Frontier Agriculture was formed in 2005 and now turns over around £1.5 billion per  annum. Frontier Agriculture has 46 sites across the UK and employs more than 1,100  colleagues. 

For more information about Frontier Agriculture, visit:<a href="http://www.frontierag.co.uk"> www.frontierag.co.uk </a>

About Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech 

Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech is an international investor in food and agriculture businesses. 

Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech’s purpose is to rethink and re-shape how food is grown,  produced, distributed and consumed, partnering with like-minded people to understand  the complex interconnectedness of our agricultural ecosystem to manage its effects and  enhance human health, our environment and enable producers to thrive. 

One of the largest and longest established investment teams in the sector, Grosvenor  Food &amp; AgTech adopts a far-sighted perspective with the aim of developing innovative  business models and to harness the insights and power of technology to identify, develop  and scale up lasting solutions. 

For more information about Grosvenor Food &amp; AgTech, visit:<a style="color: #008000;" href="http://www.grosvenor.com"> www.grosvenor.com/food agtech </a>

About Hambro Perks  

Hambro Perks is an international investment firm backed by leaders in the fields of finance  and technology. We enable innovation by investing in breakthrough and growth  technology companies. 

Hambo Perks are proud to be a multi-strategy investor as we believe in the value of broad  perspectives. We operate dedicated and specialised teams focused on primary and  secondary, early and late stage, debt and equity investments and across a number of high growth technology markets. 

For more information about Hambro Perks, visit: <a style="color: #008000;" href="http://www.hambroperks.com">www.hambroperks.com</a>

About Hutchinsons Group 

With many farming clients, representing over one million hectares, Hutchinsons are a  leading agricultural and horticultural input advice and supply company. 

Founded in 1938, Hutchinsons remains a family business and now employs over 440 staff  nationwide, with more than half directly involved with client-facing agronomic  relationships. 

For more information about Hutchinsons, visit: <a style="color: #008000;" href="http://www.hlhltd.co.uk">www.hlhltd.co.uk</a>

Oxbury Bank – Britain’s first and only AgTech bank – announces major new funding, with £500 million of lending completed or in progress towards its first £1 billion  milestone

By <a style="color: #4bbb87;" href="https://www.oxbury.com/">Oxbury Bank</a>

--

Chester, UK – 7 April 2021 – Oxbury Bank, the first 100% dedicated agriculture bank for over 100 years, has announced the launch of a ground-breaking new carbon-mitigation and biodiversity-promoting savings account.

Oxbury Forest Saver enables consumers to save securely and direct their savings interest to fund dedicated woodland creation projects on farms across Britain, while also helping to maintain a thriving farming and rural community. This unique, UK-first product enables savers to reduce the impact of CO2 emissions and enhance biodiversity.

Oxbury Forest Saver is a truly unique product which offers a 12-month savings bond (fully protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme), with savers’ annual interest at a rate of 0.7% AER directed to fund tree-planting projects run by leading sustainability partner Forest Carbon.

To begin with, trees will be planted in dedicated new woodland in the Scottish borders, with other farm sites across the UK to follow.  Forest Carbon’s woodland creation projects meet the highest standards of the internationally recognised UK Woodland Carbon Code and are audited and accredited by Organic Farmers and Growers and the Soil Association.

The importance of woodland to reverse biodiversity loss and protect and enhance the prosperity of the rural economy was set out clearly in the Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta’s review for the Treasury published on 2 February 2020.

Tim Coates, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer at Oxbury Bank, commented: “Climate change has rightly risen rapidly up the agenda, but practical options for consumers to make their own significant contribution to reversing the impact of climate change are remarkably few and far between.

“The publication of the Dasgupta Review earlier this year makes it even clearer that biodiversity enhancement also needs direct financial support and Oxbury Forest Saver is taking this challenge as seriously as carbon emissions.

“Oxbury Forest Saver will have a uniquely positive impact – protecting customer savings and the planet, while also supporting British farming – and with interest rates at all-time lows it offers our customers a cost-effective way of making a meaningful difference as they save.”

Forest Carbon Co-Founder, Stephen Prior, said: “For 15 years Forest Carbon has been at the forefront of innovation in this area – being the first to create carbon funded woodlands and peatland restoration projects. We have very much enjoyed working with the forward-thinking team at Oxbury over the past 2 years, and we think Forest Saver is a fantastic way for people to put their money to good works in a transparent and quality assured way – the impacts will be real, measured and monitored.

”Latest research from Oxbury Bank and FindOutNow<a title="" href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_7895644314917082052_m_3844344344793189244__ftn1" name="m_7895644314917082052_m_3844344344793189244__ftnref1">[1]</a> shows that more than half of Brits – 58% - are worried that many companies efforts to demonstrate their climate change credentials are driven by PR purposes rather that serious attempts to be environmentally responsible:
<ul>
 	<li>58% of Brits agree that companies' climate change promises are being driven for PR purposes, rather than genuine efforts to be serious about tackling climate change</li>
 	<li>Men are the most sceptical of the genders, with two-thirds of men (66%) sceptical vs 49% of women</li>
 	<li>Young Brits (in the age group 18-24) also show the most concern at 64%, followed by the over 65s (61%)</li>
</ul>
Kevin Hollinrake MP, Co-Chair of the APPG on Fair Business Banking, which coordinates the Bankers for Net Zero initiative, said: “Oxbury’s Forest Saver looks like exactly the kind of innovative new approach banks need to be offering customers if green finance is going to move beyond warm words to specific positive action. The great thing about this new product is that it will help change behaviours by specifically linking the amount people save with the amount of impact they can have in helping to tackle climate change. I’m not aware of any other savings product that links savings amounts with climate impact – and what’s more people’s savings will be used to support a great British industry like farming.”

Oxbury has a deep commitment to helping farm businesses build a more sustainable industry and is already the first British bank to mitigate all its emissions as it grows, including all personal carbon emissions of employees from the day of foundation.

Oxbury was recently awarded Best New Savings Provider for 2021 by MoneyComms.
Ends

Oxbury Bank launches UK’s first ever carbon-mitigation savings account, helping to fight climate change and address biodiversity loss

Oxbury is the UK’s specialist agricultural bank, the only bank that has a singular focus on British farmers and the food supply chain. We provide farmers with the specialised lending they need to run and transform their farms, and provide savings accounts to any individual or business that want to back British farmers and UK agriculture. We also provide liquidity, data and assurance services across the food supply chain.

Oxbury

Oxbury is the UK’s specialist agricultural bank, the only bank that has a singular focus on British farmers and the food supply chain. We provide farmers with the specialised lending they need to run and transform their farms, and provide savings accounts to any individual or business that want to back British farmers and UK agriculture. We also provide liquidity, data and assurance services across the food supply chain.

CEO and Executive Director, Oxbury Bank

James is CEO and Executive Director of Oxbury Bank Plc. He has led two new tech banks to authorisation – Oxbury and ClearBank. He previously held senior positions at HSBC, Nationwide and Bank of Scotland in commercial and business banking. Oxbury is focussed on lending to the agricultural sector and rural economy with a propriety tech stack that also provides a retail savings platform in the UK and SaaS internationally.

James Farrar

Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire

Samantha Niblett is the Labour Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire, and the founder of Labour: Women in Tech, a political not-for-profit delivering systemic change in gender equity by elevating women in STEM. Now a leading voice on gender equity and Tech in the House of Commons, Samantha combines 20+ years of experience in the data and technology sector with a personal passion for bringing attention to the voices of women and young people, to unite the industry behind campaigns centering on economic growth, diversity and emerging technologies. Her work to smash barriers for women in STEM, tech and allied sectors, spans unions, industry, education and government, and her ongoing work in the House of Commons bringing together Parliamentarians will be crucial to achieving industry growth under the new Government.