Rabo Frontier Ventures acquires stake in blockchain open platform komgo

Rabo Frontier Ventures (RFV), which is a strategic investment arm of Rabobank has acquired a stake of komgo SA. The latter is a venture seeking to digitalise the trade and commodities finance sector via a blockchain open platform. It was launched by fifteen largest institutions in the world including banks, trading companies, energy majors and an inspection company.

komgo is expected to launch two products by the end of this year. One product is expected to standardize and facilitate Known Your Customer (KYC) process sans a central database. It will facilitate exchange of documents in an encrypted way through blockchain. The other product will be digitalizing of letters of credit, letting commodity houses or any other platforms in order to submit digital trade data and documents to their preferred customer banks. Notably, komgo will be developed along with ConsenSys and incorporated in Geneva.

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Receives ninth investment

The acquisition made by RFV in komgo is its ninth investment. Rabo Frontier Ventures was established in March 2017 by Rabobank. It invested €70 million in the high-potential FinTech and Food & Agricultural companies that align with the bank’s strategic direction. Eventually, it is meant to offer long-term opportunities to its clients.

Marks a new era in blockchain technology

komgo is a secured platform that aims to optimise the flow of physical commodity operations such as energy commodities. “The initiative komgo marks a new era in blockchain technology. Not a standalone experiment or technology-oriented venture/pilot, but a venture where market leaders embrace the benefits of the technology and deploy it on their core processes. That makes the difference”, said Harrie Vollaard, Head of Rabo Frontier Ventures.

Michiel Teunissen, Head of Innovation Trade & Commodity Finance at Rabobank: “In the trade and commodities business there is still a substantial amount of physical paper and manual labour involved the daily processes, which can cause long settlement times and bring along certain operational risks. With komgo we are going to be able to take out a substantial part of the manual handlings and make our processes faster and easier for our customers.”