VAKT, a global commodities Blockchain trading company, has been financed by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) with a $5m stake in new shares and Aramco Trading Company as a prospective platform user.
Richard James, VAKT CFO, stated:

“It is a proud moment to be able to count SAEV as one of our shareholders. This company – part of the most profitable business in the world – has a strong track record of investing in industry innovation. We were not proactively seeking further investors; however, we could not miss the chance to bring on-board a partner of this calibre, which is a great show of faith in VAKT’s vision.”

Hans Middelthon, MD of SAEV Europe, stated:

“VAKT has demonstrated that its platform has the potential to digitize what is currently a very manual process and be truly transformative to end-users and customers. Leveraging blockchain theory and applying it to the complicated world of post-trade processing, VAKT has made a compelling pitch to become an integral part of market infrastructure. SAEV’s mission is to develop and deploy technologies into Aramco’s operations. VAKT is an excellent candidate in this sense, and we look forward to helping the company with its development.”

Etienne Amic, VAKT CEO continued:

“The North Sea is just the start for us. In a few short months, we have learned a great deal from having the platform in production and iterating our product to make it better suited for global waterborne oil. We are now on a path to becoming the backbone of the post-trade processing of physical commodities. We couldn’t ask for a better partner ahead of our future expansion than Saudi Aramco – especially when it comes to the company’s reach and expertise in Asia.”

SAEV enters VAKT’s steady shareholder base of 12 investors, all amongst the world’s most significant players in energy and commodities trading. The investment will support VAKT with further expansion of the platform and development into new markets – especially into Asia.

The deal will also mark Aramco Trading to become a new user of the VAKT platform, which is recently live in the North Sea BFOET crude oil market. The company will take its own North Sea trading volumes, attaching to VAKT’s big market share, and is equipped for VAKT’s expansion into new markets.

The VAKT platform handles physical energy transactions from trade entry to final settlement, excluding settlement and paper-based processes. Created using blockchain technology, it gives a single source of fact for buyers and sellers that is safeguarded with a permanent, distributed audit trail.