SMARTCAP Investment Boot Camp

With the drive to help Agro-Based MSEs, LightCastle Partners, in association with BFP-B (Business Finance for the Poor), Syngenta Foundation, and VIPB (Venture Investment Partners Bangladesh Limited) held Roadshows and a Bootcamp Program in Rangpur and its neighboring villages, which saw a resounding response from the farmers. The first phase of the event was a 2-day Roadshow held on the 29th of July in villages in the Joldhaka sub-district of Rangpur.

More than 120 farmers showed eagerness in joining the Bootcamp and were invited and given details about the program by the representatives of LightCastle Partners and Syngenta Foundation. The Roadshow resumed on the following day, where representatives from LightCastle Partners and Syngenta Foundation set off to travel to distant villages in Parbotipur and Badargonj sub-district in Rangpur to invite farmers to join them at the Bootcamp.

The immense and unparalleled support from Syngenta Foundation helped gather the farmers with ease and helped reach out to more than 330 of them, in just a matter of days.

After much preparation; on the 1st of August, “Smart Investment Boot Camp” was held by LightCastle Partners, in association with BFP-B, Syngenta Foundation, and VIPB at RDRS Guest House in Rangpur. The event saw more than 80 farmers come with a noticeable enthusiasm to learn. Discussions about the ways to increase productivity, division of capital, provision of loans, and tactics that would help raise income; were the prime areas the farmers looked forward to.

Syngenta Foundation along with the LightCastle Partners, BFPB, and VIPB, held key one-on-one interviews with the participants to help shape their business models into a more maintainable and fruitful one. The day ended with the participants leaving the Boot Camp with fresh ideas and strategies, which would help their farms bear more fruits, for years to come, and the interview panel short-listed 25 Ag-entrepreneurs for the 45 days accelerator program.