InSoil Secures €120M Credit Facility to Accelerate Sustainable Agricultural Lending

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By Editor, Global AgInvesting Media

In a move toward the growing institutional appetite for sustainable agriculture, InSoil has secured a €120 million senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street Capital. This financing represents one of the largest private credit commitments dedicated to sustainable agricultural lending in Europe to date, aimed at closing a critical funding gap for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the continent.

The capital is designated to expand InSoil’s capacity to provide mid-term debt solutions for farmers transitioning toward regenerative practices. These include techniques such as no-till cultivation, cover cropping, diversified crop rotation, and the reduction of synthetic fertilizer use.

Addressing the SME Financing Gap

The European agricultural sector is currently navigating a challenging environment where traditional bank lenders have often been hesitant to deploy capital. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has previously estimated that European agricultural SMEs face an annual financing shortfall of approximately €62 billion. InSoil has spent the last six years positioning itself to bridge this divide, having financed over 3,500 agricultural SMEs since its inception in 2020.

Laimonas Noreika, CEO and founder of InSoil, noted in the press release of the funding that the industry is entering a distinct new investment cycle: “Farmers need capital to modernize equipment, improve soil health and build more resilient businesses, but specialized financing has been scarce,” Noreika said. “This facility lets us meet that demand at scale, and shows that sustainable agriculture has become an investable asset class for institutional capital.”

Institutional Backing and Structural Protections

The facility is underpinned by a guarantee from the European Investment Fund (EIF) under the InvestEU program. This initiative is designed to mobilize at least €372 billion in additional investment to support European policy priorities, including the transition to sustainable and climate-resilient farming systems.

For Pollen Street Capital, the commitment aligns with a broader strategy of investing in specialty finance platforms that offer strong origination capabilities combined with government-backed structural protections.

“InSoil has built a genuinely differentiated position in European agricultural finance, combining deep relationships, rigorous credit underwriting and a strong track record,” said Paul Varty, Investment Director at Pollen Street, via the release.

“Backed by the EIF guarantee, the facility offers compelling structural protection.”

Data-Driven Underwriting

In addition to its credit facilities, InSoil distinguishes itself through the integration of climate data into its financial model. The company has collected over 15,000 soil samples across its participating farms, creating a proprietary soil carbon dataset.

This information serves a dual purpose: it informs InSoil’s internal credit underwriting processes and provides a robust foundation for measuring climate outcomes.

This approach is part of InSoil’s broader mission to leverage agricultural finance to facilitate the removal of one gigaton of CO2 emissions. By channeling institutional capital into the transition to regenerative agriculture, the firm aims to demonstrate that financial performance and environmental impact can be intrinsically linked.

The transaction involved Norton Rose Fulbright and Cobalt acting as legal advisers to Pollen Street, while Tegos and Response Legal provided advisory services to InSoil.

As the agricultural sector continues to adapt to new regulatory and environmental pressures, the success of this facility may serve as a blueprint for future institutional engagements within the European sustainable finance landscape.

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