From the Feodal Startup to the Volunteer Project for Demining Fields: The Story of Andrii Demyanovych

Andrii Demyanovych
Photo by: Latifundist.com

On February 24, the founder and Head of the Feodal project, Andrii Demyanovych, as usual, was going to meet his colleagues in the office with fragrant coffee, but the Russians invaded Ukraine, and he had to suspend the work of his team. After 2-3 weeks, when the first shock passed, they understood what exactly they could do to help the farmers. The clients began to call and tell how tractors are blown up on mines and employees die. This is how the idea arose to create a field demining service — a database where the applications from farmers for field demining will be collected and which will be forwarded further to the mine action operator.

Through Facebook, he got acquainted with Tymur Pistriuha, the Head of the Association of Sappers of Ukraine. They started working together with the service Military.feodal.online, signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, and they have been helping farmers to demine fields for over three months.

Tymur Pistriuha,
the Head of the Ukrainian Deminers Association

"Now I am telling the farmers that there is Andrii's team (the volunteers who agreed to do all this) and that for them, the farmers, this is a very huge plus. Believe me, if you at least get into the demining plan for this year, it will be a great success. Because then it will take a few more years just to get into the demining plan"

Feodal company celebrated its third anniversary in July. Over the years, the company has become an essential service in managing the land bank among farmers and territorial communities. The company pursues the idea of filling community budgets through proper land bank management, as well as accurate accounting and expansion of the farmers' land bank. Let us get to know Andrii better and find out how he conquered the market.

Land management design. Studying and working at Mriya

Andrii Demyanovych became a land manager almost accidentally. In general, his dream was to become a graphic designer and, he applied to the Lviv Polytechnic National University after leaving school. He also submitted the documents to the Lviv National Agrarian University. Yes, just in case. He did not happen to be a student of the Polytechnic University, although the points were enough. Andrii decided to enter the Faculty of Land Management of Lviv National Agrarian University.

When, after the third year of the university, the student wanted to go to work and the university did not prevent it. Some senior students worked in a well-known agricultural holding Mriya, where the employees were needed. That is how Andrii got into the company.

"A land surveyor without practice is like a doctor without an internship. Nobody needs him," says Andrii.

The student directed all his talent and energy toward the work. And there was something to direct. The boy's career went up quite quickly. New areas were added under his responsibility, and along with new difficulties. As Andrii himself said, he and two colleagues were the "heavy artillery" of the company. They had to go to the "hot spots" and conduct "rescue operations" regarding Mriya lands. The "hot spots" began to appear precisely after the company's technical default (2014) when everyone tried to grab equipment or land from the collapsing company.

At that time, Denys Palamarchuk, was invited by Simon Chernyavsky to head the land management department, told that Andrii was the youngest manager. However, his energy, experience, and responsibility allowed the top manager to appoint the boy to the Head of the "Peremyszlany" department without a doubt.

Denys Palamarchuk,
the advisor to the Minister
of Agrarian Policy

In that region (Lviv, Ternopil regions) there was a very low percentage of lease contracts registration. That is, Andrii faced a difficult task. However, after 4-6 months, the number of registrations was already 90%. So the young leader was very effective"

The newly appointed land manager had a place to toughen up, as they say, to undergo a baptism of fire and see with his own eyes the problems that arise when the land is incorrectly drawn up or not registered, and to find a way out of such situations. Andrii left work at Mriya in 2016.

Free-floating. The way to own business

The entrepreneur received the first UAH 100 six months after the start of the service development. It was just selling raw data. Andrii worked with farmers, and then large-scale enterprises appeared among the clients. He recalls that the first steps in data consulting were ridiculous:

Andrii Demyanovych

"I received and provided data about land plots through a poor code until a smart man told me: "Give me a resource so that I can open it and download information and not call you every time"

That's how easy it was to receive a request from the market. Andrii hired a programmer and started developing the first version of the Feodal.Online platform. He invested his own funds in an amount of $1,000 into this business. The program was called as AgroAnalytics. It produced a table from the StateGeoCadastre: you enter a thousand cadastral numbers, and after that, you get a thousand lines in the table. Then, of course, there were data without maps, explanations, etc. Andrii said that his attempt to sell his product then looked like this: "Look what we can do. Are you interested? Let's work".

The service received the first UAH 100 in December 2018 from Agroprosperis. The company inspected land plots for agricultural receipts. The payment was meager. However, Andrii felt he was on top of the world, inspiring him to continue his work.

The Head of the project says that Helen Fairlamb helped him a lot to understand the market and the needs of farmers. At that time, she managed the Agrarian Receipts project at IFC.

Andrii Demyanovych

"We made it possible to make agricultural receipts in a short time. We cooperated with notaries and the agrarian register. Notaries could check all data through our website. This is because the farmers, as a rule, do not keep normal records of plots"

Checking each plot for a notary is a huge, painstaking, and time-consuming job. The AgroAnalytics service (now Feodal.Online) significantly accelerated the inspection of plots.

It was challenging to promote his own product on the market. Many potential consumers did not understand what it was for. Making acquaintances and word of mouth helped. However, large companies also appeared among the clients. For example, Adama Ukraine appreciated the tool because it helped to issue agricultural receipts faster, spend less time communicating with careless customers, see their land bank, and hedge risks. Ukrlandfarming was also among the first large customers.

The MHP company, as the head of the land and property relations department Volodymyr Nagornyi recalls, started cooperating with Andrii Demyanovych in 2019.

Volodymyr Nagorny,
the Head of the Department
of Land and Property Relations at MHP

"Andrii offered the services that were unavailable on the market then. It was as if the data were open, but using them for group, comprehensive analysis was impossible. It was not possible to enter the StateGeoCadastre database and extract data on the allotments of a specific land user. And there was a demand for this option on the market. Therefore, we did not even have a question: to buy the product or not. Moreover, both then and now, the cost of the services is very moderate"

Partnership and rebranding

Subsequently, AgroAnalytics turned into Feodal. How did it happen? Andrii was looking for a better way to tell potential consumers about his product. However, he quickly realized that at that time, the idea of promoting the service through Facebook was the worst one: money was spent, but there was no "explosion". The first sales were exclusively due to personal connections and acquaintances.

Andrii Demyanovych met the former co-owner of Latifundist Media Oleksandr Kamyshin in spring 2019. AgroAnalytics company was created instead of "Andrii Demyanovych" PE (Private Entrepreneur).

Tetiana Prykhodko,
CEO Latifundist Media

"Andrii came to us for an article and left as a partner. I hope for years. He was brave, purposeful, and very conscientious at the same time. At that time, we considered many Ag Tech projects. The decisive factor in the cooperation was that even though the service was made from scratch, it worked and was cost-effective. That is, the project was operational from the very beginning. Latifundist Media has a talent in business promotion on the level of magic in a way. Obviously, at that moment, we realized that together we could make a great history in agro digitalization"

Andrii Demyanovych became one of the participants of the AgTech Farm fund, whose co-founders were Oleksandr Kamyshin and Mykola Nesterenko at that time. The name AgroAnalytics was not very catchy and memorable. Therefore, together with a media partner, they did a rebranding. The company's new name — Feodal — is still surprising to many people, but it is memorable and promotes brand recognition.

"If you look at our projects: Latifundist, Kurkul, Elevatorist, etc. We have always believed in the idea of bright names. And we were happy because Andrii wanted it as well. Although the word "feodal" (Eng. Feudalist) does not have the best meaning in history, however, it reflects the essence of the product. We were sure that Andrii's work would give a positive, sincere color to the company's name," said Tetiana Prykhodko.

Andrii recalls that it was from that time that the proper development of the company began.

If you can get information from the StateGeoCadastre, why should you pay Feodal?

It is known that every landowner or tenant can find the necessary information about his or her plots on the website of the StateGeoCadastre. The Feodal platform made it possible to receive information quickly, automatically, in a structured format. Those who have used the StateGeoCadastre website know that one can get an extract about the plot by its cadastral number. Through Feodal company, you can get an automated analysis of the land bank under the EDRPOU (National State Registry of Ukrainian Enterprises and Organizations) of a legal entity based on data from the State Register of Property Rights (SRPR). In addition, the service allows you to get data not only for individual plots but also immediately "in one window" for a group of cadastral numbers.

You can clearly understand the tool's benefits through the costs of employee salaries. A manager who receives, let's say, UAH 500 per day processes data on 50 land plots. Of course, besides this, he has another job. At the same time, the program can process 200 requests in 10 minutes. One StateGeoCadastre data request through Feodal costs UAH 0.9. As Andrii said, he formed the price of his product while working with the clients. After all, there were no competitors or landmarks on the market that could be relied upon.

Supermarket of services

As Andrii Demyanovych said, if at the beginning of the project the company performed the functions of a data dealer on land plots, then nowadays, it offers a service for managing a land bank.

In fact, Andrii implemented his ideas and what the market asked step by step. Thus, at the end of 2020, a system with a visualization of the land bank Feodal.Land appeared. In early 2021, Feodal introduced a free audit program for territorial communities within one former village council. Because then, the communities began to unite and think about how to manage the land.

Andrii Demyanovych

"We conduct training for community members. We explained where they can earn money and how to talk to business representatives. We also do free audits. I believe that we conveyed the fact that not only the commercial component is important to us, but also we want them to start developing the territories and replenish the budgets. We want to help"

For example, in 2021, Feodal conducted more than 400 free audits — in fact, for a third of Ukrainian territorial communities. The company provides information about allotments and data from two state registers in one window (StateGeoCadastre and SRPR), conducts an audit of plots, and identifies problems. A separate subdivision of Feodal.Project develops documentation for the inventory of lands of territorial communities. It makes an inventory of field roads, communally owned lands, etc.

Currently, the company covers the full cycle of community needs. First, an audit is conducted in the Feodal.land system. Then the community is picked up by Feodal.Project, which develops technical documentation for the inventory of land plots and for sale at an auction. Then — a company partner, Firm "SOMGIZ", completes the process by selling the land at auction. The Feodal.land system also quickly became popular among farmers. Using the examples of audits for farmers, the team advised and still advising the client on how to account and expand the land bank through the detailed visualization of land plots and all information from registers.

Everyone can choose their own from a small "supermarket of services" Feodal. For example, as Volodymyr Nagornyi said, MHP uses the company's products when it seeks information about the land users under the enterprise's EDRPOU, the geo-position of land plots, etc.

Volodymyr Nagornyi,
the Head of the Department
of Land and Property Relations at MHP

"Every year, we require a mass check of data on the regulatory, monetary assessment of land plots (declaration for the unified tax of the 4th group). Settlements with communities for state communal property land use depend on this. Feodal allows you to save time and money. Because instead of paying the salaries of employees who search and process this information, we buy it online quickly and comfortably"

Andrii Demyanovych said that today his company is "covering" the entire partnership chain for selling land at auction. After all, if the audit does not bring money, it is not needed. At the same time, as the founder himself said, Feodal’s employees are not the benefactors. The company invests millions of UAH in free audits for communities but receives feedback from commercial projects.

The essence of the product received by an agricultural enterprise can be simply explained. The agriculturist will be provided with information about his land plots and all others that digitize the fields within the boundaries of the former village council, the data will be contributed to the Feodal.land system. A training presentation will be held: how to use this land, where it is possible to supplement the land bank, what to do with field roads, land acquisition, etc. Next, the farmer makes a decision. He can use the monitoring of its legal entity, the monitoring of land plots to manage effectively even 100 hectares, and a year later to add another 400 hectares.

"Many agricultural holdings have their own software products. They help them to digitize their land. However, most holdings do not have systems that automatically work with the register. Therefore, we usually do not recommend large companies to develop their programs since they will look at the lands only from the perspective of the company but not the market. It is exclusively an internal ERP-system that covers internal problems. It is like a toy for yourself. In addition, such a development is more expensive for the enterprise than ordering this data from a specialized company," said Andrii Demyanovych.

Feodal Monitor Bot (abbreviated Feodal.Online service, integrated into the Telegram bot) makes it possible to check counterparties for the availability of land, assess the risks for traders, creditors, banks. Andrii said that the company helped many people to find reliable customers. Nevertheless, there were also cases when they warned traders not to buy a large grain batch, because the land was not listed under the agricultural enterprise, and tax invoices were blocked. As a result, traders did not receive VAT for grain export.

Andrii Demyanovych

"I always tell farmers: with poor risk management, you are shooting yourself in the foot. We will not do the work instead of you, but we will show you the data that will allow you to make the right decision"

In general, more than 5 million hectares of Ukrainian lands have been digitized in the Feodal.land system just for 2021. Feodal.monitor operates more than 15 million hectares. However, as Andrii said, the company does not have a main or a secondary product. All services are essential and are part of a single system. 

"Deep in the ground". About competitors and the team

Eventually, competitors appear in every product. In the segment of land bank management, the company's competitors are FMS (Farm Management Systems). Various agricultural companies use them. Moreover, according to Andrii, 10% of Feodal's clients (primarily agricultural holdings) have their own farms Management Systems.

"I would not like to criticize someone's decision. But the result of the analysis of several million hectares of land in our system shows that there is not enough information about the land bank in the FMS," Andrii said.

Andrii respects competitors and prefers not to treat or talk negatively about them.

Volodymyr Nagornyi,
the Head of the Department
of Land and Property Relations at MHP

"Andrii's company has a healthy spirit of innovation. And where there is innovation, there is no clarification of relationship, everything is done honestly, decently, and promptly"

The partners highly appreciate both human and professional qualities of Andrii. Volodymyr Nagornyi calls him Ilon Mask of Ukrainian land management.

If the startup started with an ideologist and a programmer, then at the end of 2019, employees began to join the project. Today, the Lviv Feodal office has 12 employees. Moreover, there is not a single land surveyor among the managers. But, as Andrii says, they are better land managers than most market participants. The startupper invests a lot of its own efforts and resources to teach its employees. In addition, he gladly uses educational programs, such as " Cultivary", to improve the qualifications of his employees.

As an ideological inspiratory, Andrii continues to participate in strategic planning and work with the outsourcing partners, leading some clients. That means he is not eliminated but remains a full-fledged team member, ready to substitute the employee or assist one another.

Attracting investors and plans for the future

Further development requires more investments, so the project attracted European investors last year and received the first tranche ($250,000; the total amount of $1 million) of funding. The funds are planned to be used for international expansion and expansion of the number of products and services for existing and future customers of the company.

Andrii is sure that Ukraine is a leader in the digitization of agricultural production and can spread its experience to other countries. For example, in the countries of Eastern Europe, there are no open registers, but the management of the land bank is very similar to the Ukrainian one: shares (a so-called "pai"), privatization. Therefore, the company is studying how to cooperate with farmers in these countries.

Andrii Demyanovych

"Investments for us are the resources that allow us to expand the team and accelerate the development of new products for effective enterprise asset management. In addition, to enter new markets"

Despite the fact that much has already been done, there is still more to do. Andrii says that over the years of the project, he has never regretted starting this business. This is how a chance affects life, and a business grows from a hobby.

Since February 24, the company's main task had to be temporarily suspended, and more efforts should be directed to the new field demining service. The state registers were also closed for some time because of the war. Nevertheless, Feodal has already fully returned to life, works regularly and actively conducts audits of both communities and farmers.

"We are in combat mode and have returned to work," Andrii summarizes.

Alla Sylyvonchyk, Natalia Rodak, Latifundist.com