- OpenSC, an impact venture developed by WWF-Australia and BCG Digital Ventures, announced it raised $4 million in seed funding from several strategic impact investors
OpenSC — an impact venture developed in partnership by the World Wide Fund for Nature Australia (WWF-Australia) and Boston Consulting Group’s corporate venture, investment, and incubation arm BCG Digital Ventures (BCGDV) — announced it raised $4 million in seed funding from several strategic impact investors.
The funds will be used for furthering the development of OpenSC’s digital platform — which leverages blockchain and other technologies for tracking food and products as well as helping people and businesses avoid illegal, environmentally-damaging, or unethical products.
“OpenSC gives companies and consumers a new level of visibility into supply chains. Enabled by data and insights, companies will be able to make responsible sourcing decisions that support producers who respect human rights and use environmentally sound practices. And consumers will be empowered with trustworthy, tamper-proof information about the individual products they are buying,” noted Dermot O’Gorman, CEO of WWF-Australia.
The impact investors who have joined the round include Working Capital (supported by Humanity United), an early-stage venture fund that is focused on scalable solutions that promote ethical supply chains and protect vulnerable workers and Christian Wenger, the founder of digitalswitzerland and a major figure driving technology innovation and entrepreneurship in Switzerland.
“We’re on a mission to help producers, retailers, and consumers choose products that are good for the planet and good for workers,” said Markus Mutz, the incoming CEO of OpenSC and a director with BCG Digital Ventures. “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 revolutionize the way we humans consume and, therefore, the way that we humans produce.”
After a successful international pilot with OpenSC and Austral Fisheries (part of one of the world’s largest seafood companies called Maruha Nichiro) and the tracking of its Glacier 51 Patagonian Toothfish product, this funding round will be used for powering OpenSC’s next stage of development.
“Working Capital is delighted to add OpenSC to our global portfolio of leading startups that we believe will drive positive change, promote responsible business practices, and improve the lives and well-being of millions of vulnerable workers who produce the goods we use and consume every day,” added Ed Marcum, the managing director of Working Capital. “The complexity and opacity of global supply chains can allow forced labor and human exploitation to happen unseen by corporations, and tools like OpenSC can shine some much-needed light.”
OpenSC is going to focus its technology platform on building transparency around commodities that are currently known to have significant environmental or human rights risks within their supply chains like seafood, timber, and palm oil. And in addition to scaling up work with Austral Fisheries, OpenSC also has recently announced a collaboration with Nestlé.
“Supporting OpenSC’s mission is important to me because the work they are doing is creating positive and scalable outcomes for people and the planet. With three world-leading organizations bringing their capabilities together – from WWF’s decades of conservation expertise and BCGDV’s impressive track record of building successful ventures, to Working Capital’s focus on human rights and ending modern slavery – the potential of OpenSC to make a positive impact is incredibly exciting,” explained Christian Wenger.
Nestlé will use the OpenSC platform for tracing milk products from farms in New Zealand to consumers in the Middle East later for tracking palm oil sourced in the Americas.
“WWF is committed to finding innovative solutions that protect both people and the planet. We are delighted that Working Capital and Christian Wenger have backed OpenSC to bring both capital and expertise in anti-slavery issues and digital innovation behind the venture,” noted Kavita Prakash-Mani, the global conservation director at WWF-International. “The world is facing unprecedented challenges, such as loss of nature and climate change, which are undermining the very resources humanity depends upon. It’s clear that we need to increase efforts to find innovative solutions, new ways of working, and emerging technologies to bend the curve on the loss of biodiversity and secure habitats and species.”
OpenSC is the first impact venture to spin out from Panda Labs — which is WWF’s global innovation program.
“As BCGDV’s first social impact venture, OpenSC signifies our strong commitment to helping business drive sustainable and ethical operations through the application of leading technologies such as blockchain. With OpenSC, we were able to leverage our expertise in corporate venture building to create a platform that helps solve issues of environmental degradation of habitats and species, as well as social injustice and human rights issues. The platform also makes good business sense by helping to optimize business supply chain operations, reduce costs, and enable producers to manage issues such as product recalls,” commented Paul Hunyor, partner and managing director of BCG Digital Ventures.
