AI and automation enter the diamond world as HB Antwerp and Comate announce exclusive partnership

Antwerp, 23 April 2021 – Tech and data company HB Antwerp, has entered into an exclusive collaboration with the Leuven-based design and engineering firm, Comate.

Comate further strengthens HB Antwerp’s mission to re-invent the entire diamond value chain, giving total transparency and traceability.

Comate, the Leuven-based engineering firm, is joining HB Antwerp’s ecosystem, designed to unite companies and organizations that, thanks to their specific knowledge and expertise, are helping execute HB Antwerp’s ambition – to bring simplicity, efficiency and transparency to the diamond sector.

In an unprecedented move which sees HB unite with ‘outside companies’, challenging the relatively ‘closed’ diamond industry, HB Antwerp’s knowledge of the diamond sector combined with Comate’s expertise and experience in developing successful products will form a strong basis for innovation. Comate’s leading work within the engineering and design world fits perfectly with the innovative approach of HB Antwerp and its ambitions for the diamond sector.

Shai de-Toledo, Co-founder at HB Antwerp said: “It’s exciting to welcome Sander Van den dries and his team to our ecosystem and we are looking forward to collaborating on automation and AI in the diamond manufacturing process. It’s a great boost to HB Antwerp, and in particular for our 13-person strong R&D department. With our combined engineering power we are launching this year IoT applications that will revolutionize the stone journey, from rough to polished diamonds.”

Sander Van den dries, co-owner of Comate said: “The speed and relentlessness with which HB Antwerp wants to implement its ideas and innovations create a dynamic that we also value highly at Comate. It is this unyielding ambition to want to do better every day that will ensure that we can cement Belgium on the technological map.”

About HB Antwerp

HB Antwerp turns the diamond supply chain upside down starting with the customer. Using technology, we bring simplicity and transparency to a typically complex supply chain. Everything happens within the HB ecosystem in Antwerp, backed with the latest technologies and tracked with blockchain making it 100% transparent from diamond mine to market.

About Comate

Comate is a disruptive engineering and design company, that invents and develops high-tech, mechatronic, mechanical or electronic hardware products and machinery for other companies. The fast-growing company excels in the process of engineering and designing successful products and devices that are more innovative and advanced than anything currently available on the market.