Who We Are
Founded in 2019, First Ag was created to change the way capital flows to farmers and now occupies a unique position in the agribusiness funding market.
With the sophistication of a full service, trade and working capital finance provider, First Ag offers world leading financial services to high-quality operating businesses whose scale is unsuitable for smaller, specialist agri-finance providers but who find themselves underserved by the tiered structures of larger finance institutions.
Lack of access to efficient working capital finance can impact the ability of our customers to grow and achieve their corporate goals. Financing can be expensive with few willing providers. As a result, agri-businesses may be forced to look at raising equity can itself be complex, inefficient and risky.
First Ag has a unique and competitive product set designed solely for this underserved market to provide working capital finance, improve balance sheet efficiency, reduce earnings volatility and assist in supporting growth and resilience in a key segment of the agribusiness sector.
Our Customers
Many of our customers are SMEs and emerging corporates, with growth ambitions, who have outgrown traditional property-based banking solutions provided by traditional agribusiness lenders. These businesses can support, and are in need of a sophisticated product.
| Common Customer Issues | How We Can Help |
|---|---|
| During growth phases or due to seasonality our customers often find their capital tied up. | First Ag exists to support growth and help manage seasonality via structured capital release. |
| Customer assets are often undervalued by non-specialist lender credit assessments. | First Ag use market knowledge, and leverage tracing technology and asset level monitoring to maximise the value we can ascribe for the best valuation outcome. |
| Customer businesses don’t fit traditional lender criteria. Many businesses outgrow their traditional financier but are not yet sufficiently established to attract larger lenders. | First Ag has developed lending criteria designed to address this issue and provide an elastic financing solution that grows with you as the value of your inventory grows. |
Meet Our Founders
The First Ag Management team has over 45 years of experience in both Agricultural and Structured Finance Solutions across Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States.
Justin Harrison
- Email: justin@firstagcapital.com
- Phone: +61 412 612 182
Justin Harrison has devoted the last 30+ years to both hands-on agriculture and the banking industry.
Justin commenced his working career as a Lecturer at the Australian College for Tropical Agriculture before joining the banking sector. With postings throughout Australia and overseas, including North America where he was Executive Vice President Customer Experience and Head of Business Development Eastern USA with Rabobank, he has extensive experience in building businesses with innovative financing solutions. He was the driving force within Greensill Capital in designing and deploying a supply chain finance option for Agricultural businesses both domestically and across the globe; changing the way capital flows to Farmers.
Justin sits on several advisory committees across various agricultural sectors and is a member of the Queensland governments Small Business Consultation Panel.
A graduate of Harvard Business School in Behavioral Economics he holds a Diploma of Applied Science from the University of Queensland, GAICD and is a qualified Realtor.
Lawrence Frawley
- Email: lawrence@firstagcapital.com
- Phone: 0439 875 6546
Lawrence has a lifelong connection to the Agricultural sector, having both a family background in farming and then going on to develop a career in financing the full spectrum of agricultural commodities for both Australian and international customers. Before co-founding First Ag, Lawrence spent 15 years in Structured Trade & Supply Chain Finance with the Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ), and Greensill Capital developing particular expertise in cross-border trade between Oceania and Asia.
Lawrence holds a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Finance from the University of Melbourne.