Supply@ME Capital PLC (LSE:SYME) said it has signed an agreement for the VeChain Foundation to provide up to US$10mln of funding for the first transactions from its Inventory Monetisation service.
It said VeChain, which is a blockchain enterprise service provider focused on supply chain and sustainability, has budgeted a commitment within the agreement to directly subscribe up to US$10mln of non-fungible token-based Inventory Monetisation transactions, of which roughly US$1.5m is immediately available to fund the first transaction.
The alliance is looking to “create a sustainable Web3 environment that will allow direct participation in the Inventory Monetisation journey combining traditional finance with the blockchain space”.
Providing the proof of concept, a first transaction will be carried out by end of July, SYME said, involving a client company that it has already selected from its existing Italian portfolio.
The VeChain Foundation will provide its VeChainThor blockchain and be NFT investor. According to the foundation, the VeChainThor blockchain has been adopted commercially at enterprise and government levels across various industries.
Following this transaction, an assessment will be made of the process.
A second phase would then see the build-up of an 'Inventory Monetisation Platform 3.0', where SYME expects other ‘Web3’ features, including ”the issuance of NFTs, digital ownership and B2B marketplaces, decentralised finance (DEFI) and, overall, a governance protocol”.
SYME expects to complete the second phase by the end of December 2022, with Inventory Monetisation transactions also funded by “further multiple liquidity providers”, which it said would be crypto asset managers and direct investors through liquidity pools partnerships.
Phase Two aims to include further client companies, including the current UK portfolio.
Chief executive Alessandro Zamboni said the deal was an “important milestone”.
“Given the innovative nature of our product offering, the digital asset world is an ideal provider of funding for our unique asset class,” he said.
“Notwithstanding the recent turbulence in the crypto market, the digital economy will play a crucial role in supporting pioneering businesses like Supply@ME.”