Asahi Kasei has decided to invest in Circularise B.V. together with Brightlands Venture Partners, 4impact capital, and Neste.

Circularise, founded in 2016, is a startup in the Netherlands aiming to accelerate the shift towards a circular economy through supply chain traceability and transparency.

The company has developed a highly reliable supply chain management system that achieves both anonymity and transparency based on its Smart Questioning technology.

Asahi Kasei will invest in Circularise to support the development of end-to-end traceability and secure data exchange for industrial supply chains.

Smart Questioning is a patent-pending method of using Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) to share essential and useful insights into product and material information throughout a supply chain over a public blockchain without sharing any specific data.

By using these technologies, various information such as raw materials, recycling history, biomass and recycling content, carbon footprint, third-party certification, etc. can be traced through the supply chain while maintaining the confidentiality of each stakeholder's information.

Asahi Kasei expects to contribute to a carbon neutral and sustainable world by joining the establishment of a digital platform ensuring reliability and transparency in the supply chain through its investment in Circularise, in accordance with its medium-term management plan focused on the theme “Be a Trailblazer.”