London, UK – May 31, 2023 – nChain today announces its partnership with E-Livestock, an AgriTech start-up that has created a cattle traceability platform to record data on-chain. nChain is investing USD 2,000,000 and taking a 20% equity stake in the company.
E-Livestock’s platform allows farmers to collateralise their cattle to secure loans and get paid for the true value of their animals. The traceability solution attempts to ensure healthy livestock and financial security for farmers by creating a unique digital ‘passport’ for each animal. E-Livestock currently provides their solution across Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia and Uganda, enabling their communities to onboard the unbanked and accelerate financial inclusion. With the help of E-Livestock, farmers will be able to secure loans, using their cattle as collateral.
This ‘passport’ confidentially embeds data about ownership, vaccinations, and movements. Information is scanned and collected via an RFID tag on the cattle’s ear and links to a phone-based app. nChain’s innovative platform—Kensei—notarises this to a public ledger, giving transparency to all stakeholders in the process from banks to beef buyers, while also allowing farmers to receive payment automatically. The system reduces reliance on third parties, and associated costs, as well as eliminating the risk of error or duplication.
“Having just exhibited our solution at the largest agricultural show in Africa, we are confident that our technology partnership with nChain will give us both the rails and scale to deliver the global solution that our name indicates. The tools and applications available via nChain provide us with the ability to address local markets in a flexible and emergent manner,” said Max Mukavise, E-Livestock Founder.
E-Livestock is leveraging nChain’s robust, scalable, and innovative blockchain solutions to deliver optimal performance, both in terms of scalability and energy efficiency, to reduce overheads and allow farmers to receive the maximum compensation possible. The partnership is enabling E-Livestock’s rapid growth as it expands its operations to new territories with nChain providing technology support and professional services.
Together, nChain and E-Livestock are collaborating to offer tokenisation that can demonstrate indisputable proof of ownership, a transparent supply chain, power local community empowerment, and open global marketplace opportunities.
Stefan Matthews, CEO added that “this is a critical use case for us to demonstrate that blockchain is more than a payments solution and has the potential to solve real-world problems. Our industry-leading technology drives real social impact and levels the playing field for financial inclusion. We’re excited to work with clients like E-Livestock who realise the unique potential of blockchain.”
Currently, there is no unified approach to tackling disease or climate change-related issues that affect cattle because of the lack of a global identification system. E-Livestock’s solution has the potential to deliver global impact through its financial inclusion efforts.
About E-Livestock
Headquartered in the biotech corridor of the Washington DC area, E-Livestock Global LLC aims to improve the livelihood of rural and commercial farmers by enabling the traceability of their cattle. Focusing on cutting-edge, affordable technologies, ELG delivers a world-class livestock traceability solution that can be applied globally. Founded by Chris Light and Max Makuvise, who respectively bring to the table expertise in both tech and cattle, empowering the smallholder cattle farmer is the primary focus. Piloted in Zimbabwe, the product is swiftly making its way into other African nations.