In the first of a series of interviews with key members of the LANDE team, we're talking to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Aleksandrs Nastasins, to get insight into what's 'under the hood' of our platform and understand what the tech team's work involves on a daily basis. Read on to learn about the biggest challenges the team has faced over the past months, get the latest updates about the LANDE Secondary Market relaunch, and find out what else is in the works on the IT side this year. 

Can you share a bit about your background and professional journey so far? 
 
My career began in ERP system development as a full stack developer, where I significantly improved integration processes to attract major clients. I then advanced to a fintech company, enhancing development practices and application performance. Currently, as CTO at LANDE, I lead the company’s technological advancement, focusing on transforming and aligning our platform with strategic business goals through advanced engineering practices and effective team leadership. 
 

What are some of the biggest challenges for the IT team at LANDE this year and how are you navigating them? 
 
This year, our IT team faced significant challenges, particularly with platform scalability and data integrity. Six months ago, we encountered serious performance issues; some payments could not be processed due to inadequate server resources and suboptimal code. To address these issues, we conducted an extensive audit of our core platform requirements and existing processes. We launched several initiatives aimed at improving platform health and scalability. One major focus was resolving issues with dirty data and eliminating the root causes of regressions. These efforts not only stabilized investor balances but also laid a strong foundation for future development and integrations. 
 

Real-time, improved infrastructure monitoring  

Could you highlight some recent tech-related achievements/milestones at LANDE? 
 
Recently, we've successfully addressed most of the critical issues in our code, infrastructure, and data, which had previously led to numerous operational challenges. We fortified our infrastructure, resulting in significantly reduced downtimes over the past few months—a notable improvement from last year. 

Additionally, we implemented an advanced monitoring system that enables us to quickly detect and respond to both technical issues and crucial process failures. This enhancement has allowed us to maintain control over complex operations and keep investors informed about our system's status through our dedicated portal at https://status.lande.finance/.

Monitoring of cashflow processes and loan lifecycle  
 

What can you tell us about the relaunch of the LANDE Secondary Market? What’s the timeline and what does the relaunch involve? 
 
The relaunch of the LANDE Secondary Market involves addressing complex requirements that are unique to our platform. Unlike other platforms that typically deal with annuity loans, LANDE facilitates agricultural loans with varied repayment structures. For instance, some loans allow farmers to repay the principal at the end of the farming season while making regular interest payments, which results in various repayment schedules. 

Moreover, we handle partial payments differently by immediately distributing any available amounts proportionally among investors, rather than waiting for the full payment as other platforms do. This approach ensures fair interest calculations up to the sale date of any investment, even for partial transfers, adding another layer of complexity in calculations. 

Due to this level of complexity and the need for precision in such transactions, we temporarily suspended the secondary market earlier this year to refactor our legacy systems safely. This decision prevents potential errors that could affect investor payouts during system updates. Additionally, we are addressing a loophole in our bonus system that some investors exploited through the secondary market, which requires new business rules. 

We aim to confidently relaunch the secondary market by the end of the second quarter, after ensuring all technical and business enhancements are securely implemented. 

What are some other key features the team is aiming to implement on the platform in 2024? 

In 2024, our team is focusing on several key features to enhance scalability and efficiency across the platform. We're deeply involved in all business processes to maintain low operational expenditures and an optimal employee-to-loan/user ratio. This involvement requires significant architectural shifts and the adoption of best practices. 

For investors, key updates include a comprehensive review and enhancement of the auto-invest feature, along with the previously mentioned updates to the secondary market. For borrowers we are enhancing the onboarding process. This involves improving our scoring systems and expanding our data collection and analysis capabilities to better tailor our offerings to the needs of farmers. These improvements are aimed at providing the best possible value proposition to our users and ensuring sustainable growth for the platform.