Former Waystone trio set up agri-tech venture capital and plan carbon credits exchange

Trio’s firm also reviewing projects that use technologies focused on reducing carbon in the atmosphere

Three top executives who quit Waystone, the Dublin-based fund services giant, three months ago have set up an agri-tech venture capital (VC) firm and are looking at establishing a carbon credits exchange based on blockchain technology.

Waystone said in March that its chief executive, Derek Delaney, chief financial officer Glen McGee, and chief operating officer Paul Cahill had left the company, in a move that surprised many in Dublin’s financial circle, given the pace at which the business had been growing in recent times.

The trio have gone on to set up a business called COMOP, with a VC arm focused on investing in agri-tech businesses that are seeking to improve the use of commodities and resources.

Mr Delaney told The Irish Times that this unit has lined up €20 million-€25 million of initial funding commitments, with about half coming from the three co-founders. The team has rolled into the venture a minority stake they bought earlier this year in Proveye, a University College Dublin spin-out whose software is used by agricultural advisors, fertiliser and pesticide suppliers to provide information about productivity and sustainability on land to farmers.