Fujitsu and Digital Commodity Exchange Join Hands to Accelerate Digital Transformation

Fujitsu Limited and Digital Commodity Exchange Pte. Ltd. (DCX) have entered a global strategic agreement to accelerate the digital transformation (DX) of the global commodity (1) trading industry, including the trade of agricultural products such as grains and raw materials for manufactured goods. In addition, Fujitsu will make a strategic investment in DCX on July 13, 2021 through a fund managed by its subsidiary Fujitsu Ventures Limited.

DCX is a holding company of Rice Exchange (2) and was established in Singapore in 2020 as a start-up company that leverages digital technologies to solve business challenges surrounding global commodity trading, including complex and inefficient exchanges and how to best ensure reliability and transparency. Since August 2019, Fujitsu and Rice Exchange have been working together to solve frictions related to global transactions with the world's first digital global rice trading platform, which successfully deployed blockchain technology to realize efficiency with a high degree of reliability and transparency. Fujitsu and DCX are additionally endeavouring to transform the trade of fertilizer.

Based on this agreement, the two companies will promote joint projects by combining DCX's expertise in global transactions including customer verification (Know Your Customer) (3), contracts and trading operations, with the business knowledge and system design expertise accumulated by Fujitsu in the industrial and distribution fields. Ultimately, Fujitsu and DCX aim to deliver new innovations in trading operations by developing global trading platforms for the agricultural, food, manufacturing, and international trading businesses. Fujitsu will continue to offer its robust support for DCX, serving not only as a technology partner that builds platforms but also as a business partner, working to provide services that contribute to SDGs through the power of digital technology.

Ichiro Aoyagi, SVP, Head of DX Platform Business Unit, Fujitsu Limited added his views on this and said, "We are excited to bring DCX and Fujitsu closer together to address the growing data-driven business. DCX's power to innovate commodity trading combined with Fujitsu's advanced technologies such as blockchain will allow us to accelerate our digital transformation business for our customers, industry, and society. We look forward to an even stronger collaboration with DCX and together building trust in data to overcome today's uncertainties for a more sustainable and prosperous future."

Stephen Edkins, CEO of DCX commented on this development by adding, "We are excited to have agreed on this alliance with Fujitsu. The rice and fertilizer marketplaces that we have developed with Fujitsu as our technology and business partner are operational and have attracted some of the biggest names in the trade. DCX group companies are changing the way commodities are traded by adding trust and efficiency. Purchasing managers that use DCX platforms can assess the environmental and social impact of their supply chain decisions using the verifiable data that our platforms offer. We are now evaluating the potential to deploy this technology into other verticals."

Hideaki Yajima, President & CEO, Fujitsu Ventures Limited shared his perspective from investment aspect and he said, "Fujitsu Ventures Limited is honoured to invest in DCX, which will mark the first direct investment from its corporate venture capital (CVC) fund totaling 10 billion yen, which we established on April 1, 2021. We will support DCX with an eye toward further business development with Fujitsu and will continue investments in start-up companies to accelerate the execution of Fujitsu's corporate strategy."

(1) Commodity:
Grains such as sugar, rice and wheat, precious metals and non-ferrous metals, regardless of the producer, are treated as equivalent or almost equivalent in commodity value. Most are raw materials, core resources, agricultural products, mining products, and industrial products.
(2) Rice Exchange:
Rice Exchange is the world's first digital platform enabling rice buyers and sellers and third parties to trade rice in an efficient, cost effective and secure way. The blockchain-enabled platform is designed to allow participants to interact and settle trade through a permissioned, smart contract solution that integrates buyers, sellers and service providers. It increases trust, reduces risk and delivers cost savings to the rice industry, benefiting all participants.
(3) Customer verification (Know Your Customer):
A complex process in which banks and securities companies verify the identity of their business partners before initiating transactions as an anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, security trade control, or other risk measure. In recent years, not only financial institutions but also general companies have introduced the system as part of credit management checks, etc.