SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.40, Q1 2021
News & background
€10 0 MILLION IN CAPITAL OVER PAST TWO YEARS
Start-ups drive BLOCKCHAIN ADOPTION IN SUPPLY CHAIN
A notably large proportion of the supply chain start-ups in Europe use blockchain technology. Among other things, blockchain makes it possible to digitize documents and securely and reliably share sensitive data with supply chain partners. Five start-ups pitched their solutions during a recent Webinar Wednesday.
By Marcel te Lindert
Back in 2019, Gartner was advising companies to be cautious when deploying blockchain technology in the supply chain. The research firm predicted that 90% of the blockchain projects being launched at that time would show signs of ‘blockchain fatigue’ around 2023. One reason was the difficulty in develop- ing successful applications, said Gartner. Most projects were not expected to get much further than the pilot phase. Now, two years later, there are still no signs of blockchain fatigue. On the contrary, the annual Maturity Matrix of Euro- pean supply chain start-ups reveals that start-ups in the block- chain domain have raised an impressive €100 million in capital over the past two years. “Those investors are not stupid. The fact that they are putting so much money into blockchain technology proves that there are some great opportunities in this area,” com- ments Martijn Lofvers, founder of Supply Chain Media and ini- tiator of the Maturity Matrix.
Eradicating paper
Five start-ups seized the opportunity to pitch their propositions during the latest in Supply Chain Media’s series of webinars called ‘Webinar Wednesday’. The first was the Dutch company CargoLedger, which is using blockchain technology to eradicate the ever-persistent flow of printed documents in the supply chain. Hjalmar van der Schaaf, CargoLedger’s CEO, referred to findings from Supply Chain Media’s survey of 106 manufacturing compa- nies showing that 40% plan to invest in IT solutions for end-to- end supply chain visibility: “Companies want visibility and that’s what we offer. Paper creates complexity, is easily lost and there-
In view of the strong willingness to invest, there are still no signs of ‘blockchain fatigue’.
fore creates risk. Companies trust printed documents, but we can create that same level of trust with blockchain technology. It makes data sharing easier and more transparent, plus blockchain makes it impossible to delete data and provides flexibility and effi- ciency. Our solution enables companies to save 58 cents on every euro they spend on order fulfilment and processing.” Slovenian start-up CargoX offers a similar kind of solution. “We use blockchain for the transfer, tracking and verification of docu- ments by name, including through the use of non-manipulable electronic signatures. We started with the bill of lading in con- tainer transport, but since then we have digitized more than 50 different documents,” said COO Peter Kern.
Porsche’s carbon footprint
CircularTree presented a very different application which uses blockchain technology to record the carbon emissions of supply chains. Founder Gunther Walden noted how many companies are claiming that they want to be climate neutral by 2025, 2030 or whenever: “The problem is that those companies’ own carbon emissions only account for a small part of the total. 80% of the carbon emissions come from other areas of the supply chain, but there is not usually any reliable data available on that.” Walden talked about a pilot project including BASF, Motherson and Porsche, among others. BASF supplies the granulate which Motherson uses to produce plastic bumpers. Both partners input data into the blockchain regarding the carbon emissions gener- ated by their own activities as well as by the carriers who trans- port the granulate and bumpers. “If we do that for all the compo- nents, Porsche can ultimately calculate the total carbon footprint of a car,” he said.
Without forced labour 8
The final two start-ups that pitched on Webinar Wednesday use blockchain technology to provide insight into product origin. Paris-based Connecting Food enables all value chain partners in the food industry – from farmers to retailers – to record their product-related activities in the blockchain. Meanwhile, Berlin-based Minespider is focused on the min- ing and metals industries. Ore extraction and smelting compa- nies add data to the product passport that is saved in Minespi- der’s blockchain. “This gives companies insight into the origin of the metals and the conditions under which they have been produced,” stated founder and CEO Nathan Williams, who has started to roll out this application in the tin industry. “Tin is a ‘conflict mineral’ that is widely used in industries such as elec- tronics and automotive. Our OreSource solution allows compa- nies to demonstrate that the imported metal comes from con- flict-free areas and has not involved the use of forced labour or the violation of other human rights.”
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