BBL readies funds for farm tech push

BBL senior executive vice president Siridej Aungudomsin said the bank would share its extensive knowledge in agriculture accumulated through its two decades of networking with small farmers with Thammasat University. 
Siridej said the bank is also ready to extend financial services to the university's students who wish to start up businesses and to help advise those who are trying to develop financial-service applications. Through BBL’s venture capital company, Bualuang Ventures, it also offers to acquire such financial apps. 
At present, the company is in talks to set up joint ventures with 10 to 20 startups focusing on healthcare, tourism, agriculture, food, and media-related categories. An investment of Bt50 million to Bt100 million is set aside for each startup. By the end of this year, talks with around four startups should be finalised. 
Siridej added that BBL is working with the private sector, public sector and three universities to promote tech-related startups, including those for the agricultural sector.
“Agricultural tech will help farmers reduce the cost of investment as well as improve productivity and quality,” Siridej said. “The products can be supplied to the world. Meanwhile, the collaboration will help improve the startup ecosystem, to further drive the Thailand 4.0 policy.”
Panukorn Chantaraprapab, BBL's vice president of business investment, said the bank has a pool of Bt2 billion to invest in small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) as well as startups under Bualuang Ventures.
“Together, we want to propel Thai startups as they are likened to economic warriors in the Thailand 4.0 era,” he said. 
At the press conference yesterday, some smart-farm innovations from Thammasat University were presented, including for “smart melons” and shrimp farms. Using systems that operate with GPS and cloud computing, a melon farm can reduce expenses and help farmers connect with buyers. Pipop Udorn, dean of Thammasat Business School, said the university aims to design applications that will allow easier access of Thai products to global markets. 
“The innovations exhibited today are just the starting point. Our next step is to push Thai brands on to the global stage,” he said. 
He said the university is finalising a list of 10 agricultural products with geographical indication, starting with pomelo from Nakhon Si Thammarat and Sangyod rice from Pattalung.
“We are harnessing the knowledge from different faculties like Commerce (business models) and Science (controlling system). Our goal is to make these products well known in Asia within three years and throughout the world after that," he said.