After leaving a career in finance, Nathan MacPhee entertained the notion of becoming a farmer — and quickly realized how unfeasible commercial farming would actually be for him. “I didn’t have enough land and I wouldn’t have enough land to be able to farm in a commercial way,” he tells AgFunderNews. “And so I thought to myself, ‘If I can’t buy a farm, could I buy a cow?’” That question eventually led to the IIF (Invest Inya Farmer) cooperative, an investment platform that lets the average person invest in agricultural assets like crops and livestock and get a percentage of the profits upon sale of such products.
Via the IIF smartphone app, users can view investible assets — from beehives or single cows to a basket of oysters or an acre of tomatoes — and track the status of their investments throughout the season. For farmers, the IIF platform shifts some of the risk from their shoulders to those of their investors. “As an investor, you’re investing in what the farmers are already doing and what they’re already good at doing. But in doing so, you’re providing liquidity and risk management to the farmer and building a connection with the community,” says MacPhee.
“IIF stands out as one of the few bringing true innovation to address a structural problem in our sector: the misalignment of cash flows between growers and buyers in agriculture,” notes Jasper van Halder, CEO of New Zealand’s Agnition Ventures, which has invested in IIF. Van Halder says Agnition backed IIF because of “the uniqueness of IIF’s solution, the potential global market size, and the expertise within the founding team.”
“As part of a farmer-owned cooperative, we intimately understand the financial struggles farmers and growers face in the current climate — negative cash flows at the start of the season, uncertain post-harvest earnings, and significant loan repayments that must be paid monthly,” notes Van Halder. “IIF’s innovative equity ownership model helps farmers access capital from everyday investors, directly benefiting our farmers. Additionally, we believe their compelling solution will attract both urban and rural investors, bridging the gap between farmers and ‘townies.’”
AgFunderNews recently caught up with MacPhee to learn more about the IIF platform and how it can benefit the farming community in Australia and beyond.
MacPhee explains that his journey from finance to agtech was driven by a desire for a lifestyle change and a realization of the financial constraints of traditional farming. “I worked in investments in quite senior positions in Australia and abroad for over 20 years. About six years ago, I moved from Sydney to regional Victoria for a lifestyle change. I simply decided I’d had enough of finance and decided to take some time out. Then COVID hit, and I actually spent the better part of the year at home doing not much but homeschooling the kids. I was coming to the realization that I needed to go back to work and I thought, ‘Do I go back to finance?’ We live in a rural area, so we have farming to the left of us, farming to the back of us. I thought I wouldn’t mind becoming a farmer. Then I realized very quickly that I didn’t have enough land, and I wouldn’t have enough land to be able to farm in a commercial way. And so I thought to myself, ‘If I can’t buy a farm, could I buy a cow?’”
The concept behind IIF was born from this simple question. MacPhee realized that investing in livestock could be a viable way to engage with agriculture without owning a farm. “The cow is an appreciating asset. You buy a small one, then hopefully a year later you sell it at a higher price. I thought if I could invest in cattle, maybe I could build a portfolio of livestock at other farms. The reason I thought there could be potential there was because my wife grew up on a farm and when times got tough, they often sold cows. A farmer doesn’t get paid until they harvest and sell. So whether they’re raising cattle or growing crops, it’s the farmer that has to carry all of the cost and all of the risk, and they don’t get paid until the end. I thought, well what if they could get paid earlier? Uniquely we don’t invest in farms; we invest what farms grow. It’s the production side we invest into. The first investments we ever made were into oysters. I met an oyster farmer and was explaining the concept of us investing into cattle, and he said you could do this with oysters. They take nearly two years to grow and [oyster farmers] don’t get paid until the end.”
MacPhee elaborates on the investment process, emphasizing the real assets involved. “We present what are effectively share-farming options to our investors, who are investing at the start of the growing season. They’re buying a