July 11, 2017
At Humanity United, we believe that corporations and entrepreneurs have a powerful role in delivering market-based solutions that can improve supply chain transparency and drive sustained positive change. Impact investing and other financial interventions are of growing importance as we seek to scale innovative solutions that address key supply chain challenges, including worker empowerment, product traceability, and ethical recruitment.
Our new impact investing initiative’s first private sector investment is in Provenance, a digital platform aimed at increasing supply chain transparency and consumer trust.
Regarded as a pioneer in the traceability space, Provenance takes a unique approach: leveraging blockchain technology and open data to track the journey of products along the supply chain, from origin to purchase. This allows its users – including corporate buyers and their consumers – to have a single trustworthy source for product information that can be accessed via the web or mobile devices. Provenance’s technology links identity, location, material attributes, certifications and audit information of physical products on the blockchain, enabling items to have a digital ‘passport’ that can prove origin, authenticity and social and environmental characteristics.
Provenance meets a growing market demand from companies that are concerned about product origin, and consumers who want to purchase ethically, across industries and sectors. With this additional round of financing, led by Humanity United, alongside Merian Ventures and Digital Currency Group, Provenance aims to implement its technology with over 500 food and beverages retailers by 2025.
Jessi Baker, CEO of Provenance says: “Our mission at Provenance is to improve the lives and well-being of the people behind consumer products by bringing trusted information to commerce. This funding will help us develop our tools to meet the business need for more trustworthy supply chains whilst having a positive impact.”