Blockchain in unlikely places: How AgriDigital is revolutionising the supply chain
AgriDigital is changing the game for the agriculture industry through the world’s first cloud-based, multi-participant, commodity management platform that is blockchain enabled. So far, they’ve already seen 3.9M tonnes of grain and cotton transacted across their platform, with over to 2,250 active users and payments of over A$750 million.
There’s no doubt that farming’s a tough business, yet the pain point Emma Weston, CEO & Co-Founder of AgriDigital, and Co-Founders Bob McKay and Ben Reid are addressing is the alarming fact that farmers aren’t getting paid quickly and securely.
This is due to the industry’s pervasive archaic systems. Agriculture is the least digitised industry in the world and has fallen far behind in terms of adopting digitisation within the supply chain. But all that is changing and AgriDigital is at the forefront of this innovation. Between the Co-Founders, an impressive 80 plus years of deep agricultural experience is shared, allowing them to inject efficiency, transparency and trust across the supply chain, empowering all players in the supply chain including farmers, buyers and storage operators.
Founded in 2015, AgriDigital has come a long way, winning the Finnies Award for Excellence in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology in 2017 and 2018. This came soon after the company achieved a milestone through the world’s first settlement of a physical agri-commodity on a blockchain between a farmer and a buyer in NSW in December 2016.
It’s clear that the technology behind AgriDigital evokes a deep knowledge of agricultural supply chains by connecting the dots all through one ultra secure network, which puts farmers first.
Emma explains, “We are a farmer forward organisation. We really think about what the impact is on the farmer, even if they’re not the primary user of a particular feature.”
“We have a very clear view around the need for single source of truth data in the industry, and that’s why we’ve been passionate about exploring the potential of blockchain.”
Speaking on the phone, Emma reveals what risks they took during the early stages of the startup and how each of these risks effectively snowballed into success.
A big risk they took was in steering clear from raising money in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in order to not damage their reputation. They didn’t want to go out guns blazing saying that they could solve everything with blockchain, when they were still experimenting with the technology.
“We backed ourselves as Founders, as we funded the business ourselves for the first couple of years before securing venture capital.”
She continues, “We didn’t hide what we were doing as we believed that if we told more people what we were doing rather than operating in stealth mode, it would be good for us. And it really turned out that way.”
Emma explains that the success behind AgriDigital comes from a dedicated and committed team, going above and beyond to get things done in true startup style.
“It’s a team effort. It’s building out a great team and making sure that they’re actually passionate about the work they do.”
Working out of Stone & Chalk in January 2016 after spending a short amount of time in a garage and around the kitchen table, Emma says moving to Stone & Chalk was crucial.
“The reason we moved to Stone & Chalk was because we wanted a sense of community when we didn’t necessarily have that cultural piece yet.”
“Everything from connecting with community members, through to Government, through to visiting delegations. The whole gamut of what comes with Stone & Chalk, we just took every opportunity.”
Although, Emma may seem like superwoman, being a former lawyer, and now CEO of a leading agtech company, as well as mentor to several startups, she admits that she came from a non-technical background which proved a personal challenge.
In hindsight, she says that a personal learning curve for her was in understanding some of the technical depth to the decisions she made early on in the startup. Given the chance to do it all again, Emma says she may have done things slightly differently. Who wouldn’t?
When asked to give one piece of advice, Emma shares that she wishes she had reached out earlier to the amazing female founders network out there, which she finds herself leaning on from time to time. Whether it be grabbing a coffee to share a story or asking for advice in how to tackle a certain problem, having a support network is vital.
The winner of the 2017 Female Fintech Leader of the Year and Emerging Fintech Leader of the Year, humbly reflects, “Personally, I would’ve had more people helping me as CEO, in understanding how I could personally scale and how that impacts the company.”
Going forward, AgriDigital is getting ready for its platform launch in Canada and the U.S in 2019. If you’d like to find out more about Australia’s fastest growing agricultural supply chain innovator, feel free to get in touch with the passionate team or RSVP to hear directly from Emma about her incredible startup journey.
If you’d like to gain more insight into Emma’s journey with AgriDigital, come along to ‘ Alumni Chapters’ hosted by Stone & Chalk on Wednesday 28 November.
Updated November 2019: AgriDigital is a S&C alumni
20 November 2018
