Honeycombs, small markets and what happens when the bank says no
To produce a single kilogram of honey, one bee would need to make around 40,000 flights! Alone, it is impossible. Together, it is just another season in the hive.
That image sits at the heart of Fagura, and it is a good way to think about how small businesses get funded when traditional finance looks the other way.
For this edition of Supertree Community Lens, our monthly series introducing the people behind the Supertree ecosystem, we spoke with Nadia Darie, Head of Brand & Community at Fagura, the crowdlending platform that connects retail investors directly with small and micro businesses.
Fagura launched in the Republic of Moldova in 2019 and, after receiving authorisation from Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) in 2023, now runs its crowdlending platform in Romania. Fagura works from Supertree and is a member of RoFintech, the Romanian Fintech Association, which has its headquarters here. On 7 October, Fagura co-hosted the RoFintech Breakfast at Supertree.
Fagura is one of a growing number of RoFintech members working from Supertree. In our previous edition, Finqware’s Anca Gociman told us her CEO calls Supertree “the home of Romanian fintech”; desk by desk, that idea is turning into a physical hub.
We talked about the story behind the name, what a small market teaches you, and what founders should fix before asking for their first loan.
Q: Fagura sounds a lot like “fagure”, Romanian for honeycomb. Coincidence or by design?
Nadia: It is entirely by design!
To produce 1 kg of honey, a single bee would need to make around 40,000 flights, an impossible feat alone. But when 500+ bees collaborate and deposit nectar into a honeycomb, they create a miraculous result.
That is the essence of Fagura: the power of community, mutual help and collective action.
The idea clicked from the desire to eliminate bank bureaucracy and create a hassle-free digital marketplace where retail investors collectively fund real small businesses.
Q: You tested everything in Moldova first. What did a small market teach you that a big one never would?
Nadia: Moldova was our sandbox. It’s a tight-knit market with a young financial scene, so we could build, test and fix our own systems with a small, close community of users before we tried to scale.
In a small market, feedback comes fast and every mistake is visible, so you learn discipline early. You also learn that trust, with investors and borrowers alike, has to be earned from day one. And it’s where we proved our risk-scoring models worked in real life, not just on paper.
Q: What is the most unexpected business your investors have ever backed?
Nadia: Because crowdlending connects real people directly with real businesses, investors have backed everything from local artisanal bakeries, boutique tech hardware creators and eco-farms to micro-retailers in rural towns.
What surprises people is that retail investors often back niche, passion-driven micro-businesses that traditional corporate algorithms dismiss.
Human-driven community capital sees potential where balance sheets see risk.
Q: As a RoFintech member, you co-hosted the RoFintech Breakfast here at Supertree. What came out of those conversations, and what does Romania’s fintech scene need most right now?
Nadia: Around the table we had people from fintech, IT, PR, real estate and legal. Two topics kept coming back: automating the way people invest, and cross-border opportunities through initiatives like the Moldova Innovation Technology Park (MITP).
What Romania’s fintech scene needs most right now is for alternative finance, banks and technology parks to work together more closely. That’s how companies scale across borders, and how retail investors and small businesses looking for funding finally find each other, under the same European rules.
Q: Finish the sentence: “When the bank says no, Fagura…”
Nadia:
…says “let’s look at your real potential together”, and connects you directly with a community of investors ready to fund your growth, with a decision in 24 hours, 100% online.
Q: A member wants to raise their first €20k next month. What should they fix first, and how do they apply?
Nadia: Before applying, an SME founder should make sure three things are in order:
- Financial transparency and debt history. Resolve any outstanding late payments or tax issues, so the automated scoring runs smoothly.
- A clear cash-flow plan. Be ready to show a realistic repayment capacity and a clear purpose for the €20,000.
- Administrator credentials. Make sure company registration details, the administrator’s legal documents and digital identity checks can all be completed online, without manual delays.
Once that’s sorted, the application itself is 100% digital. You can apply online at fagura.ro in under 15 minutes, literally while having a cup of coffee.
You upload the required documents, sign digitally, and our automated scoring, combined with an administrator review, provides a decision within 24 hours. Once approved, the request is published on the platform for investors to fund.
One bee can’t make honey alone. And no small business should have to fund its growth alone either.
Learn more about Fagura at fagura.ro. Planning your next round of growth? Test the application here, or ask the Fagura team in person: they are working a few doors away, at the home of RoFintech.
The Community Lens
Community Lens is a monthly Supertree series created to make our ecosystem a little less anonymous.
Each edition introduces 2–3 founders, executives, professionals and partners from within the community, through the decisions they have made, lessons they have learned and ideas they are currently building.
Because sometimes the person, expertise or introduction your business needs is already working a few doors away.
Want to be featured in an upcoming Community Lens? Get in touch with the Supertree team.
