Shariah compliant investment holding company Radiance Assets has reached a final agreement on acquiring 2.45 million shares in DeepMarkit Corp, a Canadian public listed firm, for a gross amount of CA$2.08 million (US$1.65 million), allowing it to form a carbon offset arrangement.
A definitive agreement for the stake purchase was signed this week following a letter of intent formalized on the 15th March 2022. The deal was a non-brokered private placement.
As a result of the investment, Radiance Assets will introduce carbon credit projects for onboarding through DeepMarkit’s MintCarbon.io platform. Launched last November, MintCarbon.io enables carbon credit owners to convert their credits into customizable ERC-1155-compliant non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These NFTs can then be listed for trading on decentralized marketplaces such as OpenSea.io.
The minting of MintCarbon tokens takes place on Polygon, a low emission Ethereum side chain, allowing for lower transaction fees, higher liquidity and on-chain transaction transparency.
“We are pleased to have finalized the definitive agreement with Radiance so quickly and believe that it will act as a major building block for DeepMarkit and its MintCarbon.io platform. Radiance’s confidence in MintCarbon.io further validates our thesis that utilizing blockchain technology is the best pathway to accessibility, transparency and the international achievement of carbon neutrality,” commented Ranjeet Sundher, interim CEO of DeepMarkit. “Radiance’s introduction of new users and their carbon projects is also expected to bring significant transaction volume to our platform.”
Radiance Assets is no stranger to technology. The Kuala Lumpur-based group’s business and investment portfolio are technology-driven spread across five main sectors: financial services, agriculture, medicine, clean energy and tourism. The firm is the parent of RediPay, a techfin platform and the operator of Redi2Infaq, the primary digital Waqf collection platform for the Federal Territory of Malaysia’s Waqf collection agency, Pusat Wakaf MAIWP.
Carbon offset credits are gaining traction as the world pushes to be net zero by 2050. Figures differ but the Global Voluntary Carbon Offsets Market 2022 report projects the market to grow to US$700.5 million by 2027 from US$305.8 million in 2020, clocking in a cumulative annual growth rate of 11.7% during 2021–27. Trove Research in July last year estimated that the cost of offsetting corporate carbon emissions would surge 10-fold over the next decade, with carbon credit prices expected to hit between US$20 and US$50 per metric ton of carbon dioxide by 2030.
In Malaysia, there are plans to establish a Shariah compliant carbon trading market.