ECSP License
AgriCrowd B.V. (with brand name PlusPlus) is 100% owned by Hands-on BV (with brand name Lendahand) and as such subject to the European Crowdfunding Service Provider (ECSP) license, provided by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) to Hands-on BV on August 11th, 2022. Till that date Hands-on BV was using the MiFID II license for its activities, whereby PlusPlus functioned as a tied agent of Hands-on BV. With the new ECSP license, that structure is no longer feasible.
Legal structure
To enable investments via the PlusPlus website, bonds are issued to the crowd. The investee who issues the bonds is referred to as the "issuer". These are entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector and the food chain in developing countries who therefore directly raise capital as an issuer via the PlusPlus platform.
The bonds of the issuers are kept by Hands-on BV, the legal owner of PlusPlus, in a so-called collective deposit. These pieces qualify as SFA-conform kept financial instruments which have been separated from the assets of PlusPlus and Lendahand and therefore are protected as such. The issued bonds are always excluded from a possible bankruptcy of PlusPlus or Lendahand.
Investment process
Before entrepreneurs can access the PlusPlus website to make projects available, they will have to meet the PlusPlus access and quality requirements, including acceptance of the conditions for using the PlusPlus platform.
Investors can select one or more projects (propositions) on the website to which they wish to provide financing by purchasing bonds of 50 euros each. After a payment from an investor has been successfully processed, the purchase agreement is established. This agreement is entered into under the condition precedent that the project (the proposition) will meet enough registrations. Investors accept the terms and conditions that are part of the purchase agreement. They also accept the general terms and conditions of the payment service provider that PlusPlus works with. Once the proposition has been fully funded, the condition precedent is met and the bonds are issued to the investors who have subscribed to the proposition in question by means of a payment.
Separation of funds
The ECSP license requires that PlusPlus' operational activities (maintaining the website, contracting local partners, legal issues, etc.) are strictly separated from financial transactions (payments made via the website). That is why PlusPlus works through Lendahand together with Intersolve EGI: a Dutch financial institution that specializes in offering services in the field of settlement of payments and electronic money. To be able to offer these financial services, Intersolve EGI must comply with the applicable financial legislation. Intersolve EGI is therefore supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and is licensed as an Electronic Money Institution (and therefore also has a license as a Payment Institution). The money you invest in a project is deposited in a protected and secure bank account at Intersolve until the project is fully funded. PlusPlus has no access to these funds in any way. As soon as the project in question has been fully funded, your money will be transferred to the entrepreneur in question.