WePower, the project that wants to use blockchain technology to increase the use of solar and wind power within businesses, has received financial backing from Japanese trading house Marubeni Corporation. The deal will see Marubeni give WePower an unspecified amount in a loan, which WePower said will be used to “finance further development of the corporate energy procurement platform, expand the sales team and explore new markets.”
#TBT “…We believe that WePower is in a unique position to disrupt the traditional corporate energy procurement markets by allowing almost any company to buy energy directly from renewable producers”-Yoshiaki Yokota, COO, Marubeni
Power Business Divisionhttps://t.co/mRm1UJG7uN— WePower (@WePowerN) July 18, 2019
Great Deal for Both Sides
WePower, which started life in 2017 and launched on exchanges in March 2018, aims to connect businesses with green energy suppliers, with WPR tokens received as rewards. According to a Medium post announcing the deal, Marubeni, an international Japanese company with over $70 billion in revenue, was impressed enough by their offering to stump up the cash as seed investors:
The investment agreement was reached upon discovering deep synergies with Marubeni’s Power Business Division. After the initial introduction in January…we’ve discussed the future of the energy industry, how both companies contribute towards driving change to sustainable future and how WePower technology could help Marubeni offer new innovative energy services for their corporate clients.
The Chief Operating Officer of Marubeni’s Power Business Division, Yoshiaki Yokota, was equally bullish on the potential of the WePower deal:
We believe that WePower is in a unique position to disrupt the traditional corporate energy procurement markets by allowing almost any company to buy energy directly from renewable producers.
Great Use Case for Blockchain
Renewable energy is one of the key ways in which mankind can fight back against climate change, which Bitcoin is constantly blamed for contributing to, and with commercial entities accounting for two thirds of globally produced energy, leveraging blockchain technology to encourage businesses to go green could prove to be one of its most important use cases. Several mining companies have already turned to renewable energy for their electricity needs, but WePower’s business model has the potential to take things to a new level.
