Sustainable French agricultural business issues blockchain-powered bonds on Obligate

By Matt HopkinsSenior Online Editor | Meister Media worldwide

Zurich-based digital financial services provider Obligate has announced that French sustainable agriculture company Lamar Olive Oil has issued an on-chain bond via Obligate’s platform built on Polygon, a first of its kind for the sustainable agriculture industry.

The bond is denominated in EUROe, the first and only EU-regulated cryptostable coin. EUROe transforms a fiat euro into a 1:1 pegged digital currency. Developed by Membrane Finance, EUROe enables transparent and almost instant payments worldwide at almost zero cost. This joint effort will enable Lamar Olive Oil to develop and cultivate its sustainable agricultural practices.

The underwriting and structuring process, including the credit assessment and ongoing risk monitoring by our credit rating partner Credora, was completed within a couple of weeks, as opposed to 6-8 weeks for a traditional bond process. The direct access to professional investors allowed Lamar Olive Oil to access international financing at lower costs, while the structuring of a strong security package provided investors with an appealing risk/return matrix, thus generating a win/win situation.

“We are thrilled to be working with Lamar Olive Oil on this groundbreaking bond issue,” said James Courtenay, Chairman of Obligate. “Lamar Olive Oil’s commitment to sustainability in the agricultural industry is commendable and we are proud to offer a solution that helps them, and other SMEs, access much-needed capital while providing digital asset investors with access to sustainable investments in the form of bonds.”

“We are very proud to be the first olive oil company to issue our own digital asset bond in EUROe thanks to the partnership with Obligate. We would like to thank both Credora and Obligate for their trust in giving us the opportunity to access this new capital market, ” said Mr. Ramzi Lahmar, CEO of Lamar Olive Oil.

Colin Butler, Global Head of Institutional Capital at Polygon Labs, said: “It’s exciting to see the functionality created by Obligate to support a company like Lamar Olive Oil in their mission towards sustainability via chain bonds. We knew that building the infrastructure for tokenization would be a jumpstart for innovation, and Polygon Labs is proud to have enabled sustainability work like this in line with our own ethos. We expect this to be just the start of a world of new industries unlocking the benefits of blockchain.”

Obligate supports SMEs by offering a secure and transparent way to issue, track and settle debts, making the whole process more efficient. Obligate’s platform is designed to streamline the debt issuance process and make it more accessible to businesses and investors of all sizes. With the lowered threshold for issuing bonds, SMEs in both developed and emerging markets have increased access to financing. The platform is built on Polygon, one of the most developed crypto ecosystems, across both traditional finance and DeFi, offering high scalability, speed and security.

“We are pleased to partner with Obligate on this issuance, which sets the stage for the next generation of on-chain compliant bond issues,” commented Juha Viitala, CEO of Membrane Finance. “With the regulatory clarity achieved with MiCA coming into effect next year, we are on the cusp of large-scale enterprise adoption of blockchain technology in their day-to-day financial operations. Fully fiat-backed and regulated stablecoins, such as EUROe, are essential to enabling European business participation in chain financing, such as those made possible by Obligate today. With the initial bond issue complete, we are eager to pursue new ways to bring more companies into an era of digital finance.”

Obligate and Membrane Finance both share a commitment to bridging the gap between DeFi and TradFi, leveraging the efficiencies of digital assets and blockchain technology while providing regulatory certainty.

Obligate makes it easier, faster and cost-effective for companies to raise capital and issue their own bonds. Smart contracts replace the role of issuer and paying agent in the settlement layer of a traditional bond issue, while the blockchain functions as both an asset register and trading platform.