GES2019: Groasis picks up blockchain to attract dedicated investors for its Waterboxx
Groasis announced a capital raising campaign for building three production facilities for their Growboxx and Waterboxx devices in the US, India and China. The company has decided to use blockchain technology to tokenize its shares on the public platform where shareholders can step in and out anytime and all transactions remain transparent.
The blockchain-based trading platform was announced by founder Pieter Hoff (on top photo) of Groasis at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit that took place on June 4 and 5 in The Hague, the Netherlands.
At the GES-summit some 1,200 entrepreneurs presented their business plans to 300 investors for the global roll out of their latest innovations.
Crops growing in deserts
Groasis has developed a bucket like shaped device that can make trees and crops grow in dry, hot and eroded areas, without irrigation. When planting a tree or crop the bucket is filled with water only once. The plant will further grow on rainwater that enters the soil. Depending on the soil humidity, the plant will grow slow or fast.
The company is already active with its Waterboxx (the plastic version) and Growboxx (the biodegradable version) in 43 countries.
Water efficiency
‘Trees are very water efficient’, said Hoff to the potential investors that had gathered at the summit. ‘On average we can make a tree to grow a main root of three meters depth in one year. This gives the plant a survival rate of 90 percent’.
According to the World Resource Institute there are 2 billion hectares of land in the world that has been degraded and eroded but still has the potential to be restored for productive forestry or farmland. ‘Restoration of these desert areas with drip irrigation is no option’, said Hoff. ‘The little water that is left would be lost within 40 years by the use of irrigation’.
Interesting proposition for investors
Hoff told that his company has an ambitious business plan. For the expansion Groasis needs an investment of 8 million euro.
Letters of intent for the production and sales of 100 million Growboxx and Waterboxx over the next 8 years have been signed with local representatives recently. ´For the production we want to build giga factories with a capacity of 350,000 buckets annually´, Hoff revealed at the summit. The first will be located in Houston and is about to start its production later this year.
The local producers will pay Groasis a small fee. According to Hoff the value chain starts with the planter ´There must be a financial stimulance for the planter', he said. ´Therefore we developed an intelligent Growboxx that contains both a tree and some vegetable plants. The tree planters can sell the crops and make money to pay back their small investment or micro loan.
Digital platform to sell shares
Restoring forests and productive farmland is an important societal goal of Groasis. ‘In line with this community objective, we decided to start a public platform for local communities and small investors,’ Hoff explained. ‘For this public marketplace we have an official permit from the Dutch Financial Market Authority’.
Later this month Groasis will disclose more details at investor meetings and by October they intend to be able to sell the first shares.
