Chinese ag-focused startup Wangjiahuan has raised an impressive $58 million Series A to support efforts to build a blockchain platform to ensure food quality. Leading the round was Singapore-based logistics solutions provider, Global Logistic Properties (GLP) which made the investment through the US$1.46 billion Hidden Hill Modern Logistics Private Equity Fund launched this past May, reports Deal Street Asia.
The capital will also be used by Wangjiahuan to build a cloud-based data platform designed to collect and analyze information that can be used to advance the company’s operations, and to fund the building of warehouse centers across China.
Founded in 1995, Wangjiahuan is a food distributor with six business pillars: base management, warehousing centers, logistics and distribution, central kitchen, group meal service, and e-commerce.
The company has more than 200,000 acres of plantations throughout China, from which more than 500,000 tons of fruit and vegetables are purchased every year. In addition, strengthening its market position, Wangjiahuan was recently awarded general distribution rights for more than 200 food brands across China.
“The investment to Wangjiahuan is an important investment for GLP as it helps us to integrate the resources of our food and even logistics portfolio companies to help upgrade and complete the food service industry,” said GLP chief investment officer and Hidden Hill chairman Dong Fanghao.
Problem Solver
In his article, “Blockchain: Can It Be of Help for the Agricultural Industry?” economist Carlo R.W. DeMeijer dubbed blockchain a “problem solver”, an opinion that with time is being adopted by players along the ag and food supply chain and their investors.
Blockchain has already made noticeable headway in various ag sectors, with Louis Dreyfus being the first global trader to complete a total blockchain-based grain transaction for a cargo of soybeans being shipped to China.
Techstars accelerator alum, Filament, which has offices in Reno, Nevada, Denver, and San Francisco, raised $5 million in Series A funding in 2015, and in March 2017 raised $15 million in new venture financing to advance TAP, a platform used for the purpose of sharing soil data from a particular field among farmers.
California-based Skuchain also developed a blockchain platform for barcodes and RFID tags designed to prevent counterfeiting which has already being applied to the agriculture industry.
This year has seen an acceleration in funding rounds for blockchain technologies and their application along the ag and food supply chains.
In January, BlockGrain, an Australian agtech-blockchain startup, raised the equivalent of approximately $1 million in cryptocurrency from the $90 million NEM Blockchain Investment Fund. The company plans to use the capital to enhance its technology’s IP protection, fully integrate the platform with a handheld device, and to expand its marketing to new customers.
Three months later, Adelaide-based startup T-Provenance raised funds to help pilot its blockchain technology with mango growers in Northern Australia. Through a pilot program, T-Provenance will work with Queensland’s Growcom – which is the peak representative body for that area’s horticulture industry – and mango producer Manbulloo, which has six family-owned mango farms across Northern Australia and is the largest grower of Kensington Pride mangoes in the country. Sensors and smart chips will be used to monitor variables such temperature, humidity, and other parameters in order to ensure food safety, quality, traceability, and authenticity all along the supply chain from farm to retailer.
The data will be fed through T-Provenance’s Ethereum-based private blockchain layer, with accessibility provided to interested parties – distributors, wholesalers, producers – through a dashboard.
And more recently, in early July, food safety technology startup FoodLogiQ announced the launch of a blockchain pilot in partnership with AgBiome Innovations, Subway/Independent Purchasing Cooperative, and existing investors Testo and Tyson Foods to test the viability of blockchain to increase transparency within the food chain.
Major retailers also have begun integrating blockchain into their businesses. Last year, Walmart teamed up with a consortium of nine giants in the food sector including Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Driscoll’s, Tyson Foods, and Golden State Foods, along with IBM to increase the traceability of foods such as chicken, pork, chocolate, and bananas.
-Lynda Kiernan