73609Vimba Construct Ltd: Connecting the construction industry, leveraging smart contracts, to make equipment rental easy, fast, reliable and trustworthy.ClosedStudyInnovate UKVimba Construct Ltd's project is to help to improve the productivity of the construction industry by developing a digital platform to connect construction companies with equipment rental companies, to make equipment rental easy, fast, reliable and trustworthy. Sharing economy platforms such as Airbnb and gig economy platforms such as Uber have realised huge success in the consumer sectors, however these technologies have not yet transitioned to business-to-business industrial sectors such as agriculture, mining, oil and gas and construction. Startups that have attempted to bring these solutions to industrial sectors are generally at a very early stage and have not yet proven the commercial scalability for industrial use cases. The aim of smart contracts is to provide security that is superior to traditional contract law and to reduce transaction costs associated with contracting. Smart contracts technologies have had some success in tracking goods or documentation through supply chains such as in the shipping industry however the technology has not yet transitioned to industrial sectors such as agriculture, mining, oil and gas and construction. These industrial sectors have generally been very slow to adopt new digital technologies and have followed many of the same procedures in their supply chains for decades. Startups in this space are generally at a very early stage and have not yet proven the commercial scalability for industrial use cases. Smart contracts tend to work well for cryptocurrencies because the execution of payment instructions is for a digital currency. In order to realise the benefits of smart contracts in industrial sectors, since the sectors are highly unlikely to revert to cryptocurrencies in the medium term, innovative solutions are needed to integrate smart contracts into third party ERP systems. The construction sector has lagged in productivity compared with other sectors for decades and maintains significant inefficiencies in supply chain management, contracting, collaboration, and asset utilisation. The industry is under increasing pressure to adopt digital technologies and new ways of working to improve productivity. In order to respond to this need, Vimba is leveraging the sharing economy and smart contracts technology to develop a digital platform which will help to improve the productivity of equipment rental. It will do this by reducing the cost and time to source equipment, manage contracts, pay suppliers and by increasing utilisation.