Cambodian social enterprise for farmers secures debt financing from US investor

ATEC Biodigesters International, a company that produces and distributes biodigester systems, raised an undisclosed amount of debt financing from US-based social impact organization Beneficial Returns.

The ATEC team / Photo credit: ATEC

Singapore’s Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) facilitated the deal through Impact Partners, its crowdfunding platform for impact investing.

The Australian-Cambodian social enterprise said the new funds will be used to launch its pay-as-you-go (Paygo) model for its biodigesters. The model, which will be launched in Cambodia first, is set to provide 7,500 households access to clean energy, reduce exposure to indoor air pollution, free up time from basic cooking and fuel needs, and cut down 33,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year, according to IIX’s assessment.

Under the new model, farming households looking to use biodigesters can now opt for monthly installment payments instead of paying a large sum up front. It would also help ATEC tap into existing Paygo distributors to reach more small-scale farmers.

According to the company, there are about 205 million farms that can benefit from the use of biodigesters, but the market remains largely untapped. A majority of these farms are in Asia, with Cambodia and Bangladesh representing potential markets of 1.3 million and 4.5 million farming households, respectively.

Prior to the debt financing round, ATEC received seed funding from Google and non-profit organization SNV in 2016. Since then, it claims to have sold over 1,000 biodigester units in Cambodia.

In its series A round, the company received investment from Australia’s Small Giants, French firms Fondation Ensemble and Engie Rassembleurs d’Energies, and an Australian private investor.