AUSTRALIA – Impact investor, OpenSC has raised US$4 million in seed funding to further the development of its digital platform, which leverages blockchain and other technologies for tracking food and food products.
Following a successful international pilot with OpenSC and Austral Fisheries and subsequent launch of the technology in other platform, this round of funding will power OpenSC’s next stage of development.
OpenSC technology seeks to promote transparency of food products that are currently known to have significant environmental or human rights risks within their supply chains, such as seafood and palm oil.
The company believes that blockchain technology can help mitigate trust issues by providing immutable records of data and enables the creation of systems that are not controlled by any single entity.
Markus Mutz, CEO of OpenSC notes that the blockchain technology can, for example, help with the creation of digital identities for physical products and the recording of relevant data around products.
“This can not only inhibit fraud and counterfeit products, but can also help optimize business supply chain operations, reduce costs and enabling producers to better manage issues such as product recalls.
“Platforms and systems with this type of functionality make all players along the supply chain feel comfortable in participating, unlocking tremendous value,” he adds.
OpenSC is the result of a collaboration that brings together BCGDV’s expertise in corporate venturing and developing blockchain-enabled supply chain traceability solutions, with WWF’s 30 years of leadership in supply chain transformations to reduce environmental impacts.
OpenSC is in a mission to help business drive sustainable and ethical operations through the application of groundbreaking blockchain technology.
“We’re on a mission to help producers, retailers, and consumers choose products that are good for the planet and good for workers,” Mutz said.
“We’ve reached a point where technology has evolved and can be harnessed to create a whole new level of transparency and re-build trust. At OpenSC, we believe this will revolutionise the way we humans consume and, therefore, the way that we humans produce.”
In addition to scaling up work with Austral Fisheries, OpenSC also recently announced a partnership with Nestlé in pilot blockchain technology.
Nestlé will use the OpenSC platform to trace milk products from farms in New Zealand to consumers in the Middle East, and, later, to track palm oil sourced in the Americas.
Consumers can use OpenSC to learn more about the products they purchase by verifying claims about sustainable and ethical production, tracing individual physical products throughout supply chains and sharing this information with consumers throughout various channels.
