NEW YORK [Consensus 2018], May 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Swarm (www.swarm.fund), the blockchain for private equity, today announced that it will make available an investment in the FarmCoin pan-African financial and commodities ecosystem via its marketplace. This will give investors not only a unique investment opportunity in one of the prime “unbanked” global markets, but also the chance to lend a helping hand to improve the lives and opportunities for Africa’s poorest farmers.
“This puts Swarm in one of the most exciting places for crypto - ground zero for much of the world’s unbanked,” said Philipp Pieper, CEO and Co-Founder of Swarm. “Our strategy is based on using our unique ecosystem to create real value to hundreds of millions of people, enabling them to trade responsibly with an objective of increasing income to farmers to deliver economic security across Africa.”
FarmCoin has been created by a joint venture between FinComEco (a subsidiary of GMEX Group) and Block Commodities (formerly African Potash). FinComEco is a fully integrated, financial and commodities ecosystem providing services, financing, capacity building and enablement solutions from supply to demand. Block Commodities is a company focused on creating a vertically integrated platform for the mining, production, and distribution of fertilizer.
The primary concern of FarmCoin is financial inclusivity and social responsibility. It is intended to provide financial opportunities for the 700 million unbanked subsistence farmers across Africa who either cannot get loans or are forced to take on loans via moneylenders at uneconomic rates. FinComEco is already engaged with 20+ countries across Africa with four countries contracted to its model.
The surplus crops of African subsistence farmers often go to waste and rot. In the FarmCoin model, farmers will be able to bring these surpluses to a warehouse where they will be immediately paid for them or can get financing via a loan of FarmCoins that can then be used to buy certified seeds, fertiliser or education at discounted rates. The deposited crops are aggregated and sold via a FinComEco facilitated commodities exchange, with the farmers being advised of prices via mobile texts. Once the crops are sold, the warehouse fees and loan interest are paid and the surplus given to the farmer in more FarmCoins. The interest rates on FarmCoins will be at a mutually agreed, decentralized rate of interest, expected to be more than 50 percent lower than the current bank lending rate and 75 percent less than the commercial rate.
Investors who participate via Swarm’s marketplace will purchase FARM tokens, representing fractional ownership in FarmCoin infrastructure, making this a true asset-backed token. FARM token holders will benefit from a share in the fees and interest paid by the farmers.
“Our primary concern providing needed infrastructure and resources to unbanked farmers in Africa, enabling them to feed their families by providing security of transaction, eliminating corruption, reducing costs of borrowing, and ensuring the liquidity for the purchase of inputs by ensuring the sale of produce,” said Hirander Misra, Co-Chairman and Founder of FinComEco. “Support from Swarm Fund allows Block Commodities and FinComEco to make real progress on these goals enabled by blockchain technology,” added Chris Cleverly, Executive Chairman of Block Commodities.
“By 2030, the population of Africa will have doubled to 2.5 billion, creating a profound need for a supportive and educational ecosystem that gives farmers a route to improve themselves and take their families away from everlasting cycles of poverty, starvation and dependency. Blockchain and smart contract investments like FarmCoin enable market inefficiencies such as corruption, market access and perception-based debt costs to be removed,” added Pieper.
About Swarm Fund
Swarm Fund is the blockchain for private equity. A fully decentralized capital marketplace, it democratizes investing by using the power of the blockchain to open up high-return, alternative investment classes to smaller investors through asset-backed funds using cryptocurrency tokens. It makes traditionally exclusive investment opportunities, such as private equity funds, inclusive for the Swarm, and provides fund managers access to an untapped capital stack. With a structure similar to a co-operative, Swarm Fund is owned by its members who also determine, through a liquid democracy governance system, the administrative and philosophical direction of Swarm Fund. By leveraging the efficiencies of intelligent, blockchain 3.0 technologies, Swarm provides an entire platform from which businesses can create and run new, crypto-centric enterprises, with a wellspring of funding built in.
Media contact: swarm@transform.pr
About FinComEco
FinComEco a fully integrated Financial & Commodities Ecosystem is a pan-African initiative whose ecosystem will drive improvements in food security, economic diversity and financial inclusion through a socially responsible commercial delivery partnership. The goal is a sustainable and increasing improvement in the sophistication and living standards of smallholder farmers and their families in developing countries brought about by this venture, which links agriculture to the latest financial technology. FinComEco gives farmers new ways of selling their surplus crops rather than letting it go to waste and provides the means to discover the current market price and fund purchases of certified seed and fertiliser. The technology provided by FinComEco also brings banking services to the unbanked and permits the highest standards in the sourcing and tracking of crops and commodities. FinComEco is a majority owned subsidiary of GMEX Group, which creates and operates cost-effective electronic exchanges and post-trade infrastructure in multiple asset classes including equities, debt, FX, derivatives, commodities and crypto.
Media contact: Melanie Budden
The Realization Group
+44 (0)7974 937 970
melanie.budden@therealizationgroup.com
About Block Commodities
Maximising commodities ecosystem with blockchain technology
Block Commodities’ strategy is to maximise the value of African agricultural and other commodities through the deployment of blockchain technology. The resources will be linked through the vertical integration of primary industries down to consumers via blockchain platforms. Using blockchain’s ability to dynamically incorporate all market participants into an efficient ecosystem, Block Commodities aims to facilitate the commercial operation of such ecosystems in the context of the agricultural production cycle.
In reclaiming the value lost in African agricultural and extractive industries through inefficient supply and distribution systems, Block Commodities will help African farmers raise productivity and secure better returns for produce. This is an important step in establishing African communities as significant future global agricultural producers.
Forward-Looking Statements Disclosure
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. In this context, forward-looking statements may address the Company's expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "anticipates," "beliefs," "estimates," "expects," "intends," " plans," "seeks," "will," and other terms with similar meaning. These forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Although the Company believes that the assumptions upon which its forward-looking statements based are reasonable, it can provide no assurances that these assumptions will prove to be correct. All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by such cautionary statements, risk, and uncertainties, and by reference to the underlying assumptions.